NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Net news is a world-wide information exchange service covering
numerous topics in science and every day life. Topics are organized
in news groups, and these groups are open for everybody to post
articles on a subject related to the topic of the group.

Nn is a `point-and-shoot' net news interface program, or a
news reader for short (not to be confused with the human
news reader). When you use nn, you can decide which of the many
news groups you are interested in, and you can unsubscribe to those
which don't interest you. nn will let you read the new (and
old) articles in each of the groups you subscribe to using a menu
based article selection prior to reading the articles in the news
group.

When a news group is entered, nn will locate all the presently
unread articles in the group, and extract their sender, subject, and
other relevant information. This information is then rearranged,
sorted, and marked in various ways to give it a pleasant format when
it is presented on the screen.

This will be done very quickly, because nn uses the NOV database
via the NNTP XOVER command.
The news server to use can be overridden by setting the environment
variable $NNTPSERVER to the name of the system (such as
news.newserver.com), or by setting the variable nntp-server
(on the command line only, since it is looked at before the init file),
as "nntp-server=news.some.domain").
If you use multiple servers, you probably want to set the nn-directory
and newsrc variables on the command line to an alternate names as well,
since some of the data files are server dependent.
If you are using
a slow tcp link (such as ppp over a modem) and NNTP, see
the NOTES section at the end of this manual.

When the article menu appears on the screen, nn will be in a
mode called selection mode. In this mode, the articles which
seems to be interesting can be selected by single keystrokes (using
the keys a-z and 0-9). When all the interesting articles among the
ones presently displayed have been selected, the space bar is hit,
which causes nn to enter reading mode.

In reading mode, each of the selected articles will be presented.
You use the space bar to go on to the next page of
the current article, or to the next article. Of course, there are
all sorts of commands to scroll text up and down, skip to the next
article, responding to an article, decrypt an article, and so on.

When all the selected articles in the current group have been read,
the last hit on the space bar will cause nn will continue to the
next group with unread articles, and enter selection mode on that group.

FREQUENTLY USED OPTIONS

nn accepts a lot of command line options, but here only the
frequently used options are described. Options can also be set
permanently by including appropriate variable settings in the
init file described later. All options are described in the
section on Command Line Options towards the end of this manual.

The frequently used command line options are:

-a0

Catch up on unread articles and groups. See the section "Catch up"
below.

-g

Prompt for the name of a news group or folder to be entered (with
completion).

-r

Used with -g to repeatedly prompt for groups to enter.

-lN

Print only the first N lines of the first page of each article
before prompting to continue. This is useful on slow terminals and
modem lines to be able to see the first few lines of longer articles.

-sWORD

Collect only articles which contain the string
WORD
in their subject (case is ignored). This is normally combined with
the -x and -m options to find all articles on a specific subject.

-s/regexp

Collect only articles whose subject matches the regular expression
regexp.
This is normally combined with the -x and -m options to find all
articles on a specific subject.

-nWORD or -n/regexp

Same as -s except that it matches on the sender's name
instead of the article's subject.
This is normally combined with the -x and -m options to find all
articles from a specific author. It cannot be mixed with the
-s option!

-i

Normally searches with -n and -s are case independent.
Using this option, the case becomes significant.

-m

Merge all articles into one `meta group' instead of showing
them one group at a time. This is normally used together with the -x
and -s options to get all the articles on a specific subject presented
on a single menu (when you don't care about which group they belong
to). When -m is used, no articles will be marked as read.

-x[N]

Present (or scan) all (or the last N) unread as well as
read articles. When this option is used, nn will
never
mark unread articles as read (i.e. .newsrc is not updated).

-X

Read/scan unsubscribed groups also. Most useful when looking for
a specific subject in all groups, e.g.

nn -mxX -sSubject all

news.group or file or +folder

If none of these arguments are given, all subscribed news groups will
be used. Otherwise, only the specified news groups and/or files will
be collected and presented. In specifying a news groups, the
following `meta notation' can be used:
If the news group ends with a
`.' (or `.all'), all subgroups of the news group will be collected,
e.g.

comp.sources.

If a news group starts with a `.' (or `all.'), all the matching
subgroups will be collected, e.g.

.sources.unix

The argument `all' identifies all (subscribed) news groups.

COMMAND INPUT

In general, nn commands consist of one or two key-strokes, and nn
reacts instantly to the commands you give it; you don't have to enter
return
after each command (except where explicitly stated).

Some commands have more serious effects than others, and therefore
nn
requests you to confirm the command. You confirm by hitting the
the
y
key, and reject by hitting the
n
key. Some `trivial' requests may also be confirmed simply by hitting
space.
For example, to confirm the creation of a save file, just hit
space,
but if one or more directories also have to be created, you must enter
y.

Many commands will require that you enter a line of text, e.g. a file
name or a shell command. If you enter
space
as the first character on a line, the line will be
filled with a default value (if one is defined). For example, the
default value for a file name is the last file name you have entered,
and the default shell command is your previous shell command. You can
edit this default value as well as a directly typed text, using the
following editing commands. The erase,
kill, and interrupt keys are the keys
defined by the current tty settings. On systems without job control,
the
suspend
key will be
control-Z
while it is the current suspend character on system with job control.

erase

Delete the last character on the line.

delete-word (normally ^W)

Delete the last word or component of the input.

kill

Delete all characters on the line.

interrupt and control-G

Cancel the command which needs the input.

suspend

Suspend nn if supported by the system. Otherwise, spawn an
interactive shell.

BASIC COMMANDS

There are numerous commands in nn, and most of them can be invoked
by a single keystroke. The descriptions in this manual are based on
the standard bindings of the commands to the keys, but it is possible
to customize these using the
map
command described later. For each of the keystroke commands described
in this manual, the corresponding command name will also be shown in
curly braces, e.g. {command}.

The following commands work in both selection
mode and in reading mode. The notation ^X means `control X':

?{help}

Help. Gives a one page overview of the commands available in the
current mode.

^L{redraw}

Redraw screen.

^R{redraw}

Redraw screen (Same as ^L).

^P{message}

Repeat the last message shown on the message line. The command can be
repeated to successively show previous messages (the maximum number of
saved messages is controlled via the message-history variable.)

!{shell}

Shell escape. The user is prompted for a command which is executed
by your favorite shell (see the
shell
variable). Shell escapes are described in detail later on.

Q{quit}

Quit nn. When you use this command, you neither lose unread
articles in the
current group nor the selections you might have made (unless the
articles are expired in the meantime of course).

V{version}

Print release and version information.

:command {command}

Execute the command by name. This form can be used to invoke
any of nn's commands, also those which cannot be bound to a key
(such as :coredump), or those which are not bound to a key by
default (such as post and unshar).

SELECTION MODE

In selection mode, the screen is divided into four parts: the header
line showing the name of the news group and the number of articles,
the menu lines which show the collected articles - one article
per line, the prompt line where you enter commands, and the message
line where nn prints various messages to you.

Each menu line begins with an article id which is a unique
letter (or digit if your screen can show more than 26 menu lines). To
select an articles for reading, you simply enter the corresponding
id, and the menu line will be high-lighted to indicate that the
article is selected. When you have selected all the interesting
articles on the present menu, you simply hit space.

If there are more articles collected for the current group than could
be presented on one screenful of text, you will
be presented with the next portion of articles to select from. When
you have had the opportunity to select among all the articles in the
group, hitting space will enter reading mode.

If no articles have been selected in the current group, hitting
space will enter selection mode on the next news group, or exit
nn if the current group was the last news group with unread
articles. It is thus possible to go through ALL unread articles
(without reading any of them) just by hitting space a few times.

The articles will be presented on the menu using one of the following
layouts:

0:

x Name......... Subject.............. +123

1:

x Name......... 123 Subject..............

2:

x 123 Subject...................................

3:

x Subject...........................................

4:

x Subject........................................

Here x is the letter or digit that must be entered to select the
article, Name is the real name of the sender (or the mail
address if the real name cannot be found), Subject is the
contents of the "Subject:" line in the article, and 123 is the number
of lines in the article.

Layout 0 and 1 are just two ways to present the same information,
while layout 2 and 3 are intended for groups whose articles have very
long subject lines, e.g. comp.sources.

Layout 4 is a hybrid between layout 1 and 3. It will normally use
layout 1, but it will use layout 3 (with a little indentation) for
menu lines where the subject is longer than the space available with
layout 1.

Layout 1 is the default layout, and an alternative menu line layout is
selected using the -L option or by setting the
layout
variable. Once nn is started the layout can be changed at any
time using the " key {layout}.

The Name is limited to 16 characters, and to make maximum use of
this space, nn will perform a series of simplifications on the
name, e.g. changing first names into initials, removing domain names
from mail addresses (if the real name is not found) etc. It does a
good job, but some people on the net put weird things into the From:
field (or actually into their password file) which result in nn
producing quite cryptic, and sometimes funny "names".

One a usual 80 column terminal, the Subject is limited to about
60 characters (75 in layout 3) and is thus only an approximation to
the actual subject line which may be much longer. To get as much out
of this space, Re: prefixes (in various forms) are recognized
and replaced by a single `>' character (see the re-layout
variable).

Since articles are sorted according to the subject, two or more
adjacent articles may share the same subject (ignoring any `>'s). In
this case, only the first article will show the subject of the
article; the rest will only show the `>' character in the subject
field (or a `-' if there is no `>' at the beginning of the line). A
typical menu will thus only show each subject once, saving a lot of
time in scanning the news articles.

If consolidated menus (see section below) are enabled, adjacent
articles sharing the same subject will be shown with a single
line on the menu corresponding to the first of the articles.
The number of articles with the same subject will be shown as a
braketed number in front of the subject, e.g. with layout 1:

ARTICLE ATTRIBUTES

While nn is running and between invocations, nn associates
an attribute with each
article on your system. These attributes are used to differentiate
between read and unread articles, selected articles, articles marked
for later treatment, etc. Depending on how nn is configured,
these attributes can be saved between invocations of nn, or some
of them may only be used while nn is running.

The attribute is shown on the
menu using either a single character following the article id
or by high-lighting the menu line, depending on the attribute and the
capabilities of the terminal. You can also change the attributes to
your own taste (see the attributes variable).

The attribute of an article can be changed explicitly using the
selection mode commands described below, or it will change
automatically for example when you have read or saved a selected
article.
If a command may change any article attributes, it will be noted in
the description of the command. The following descriptions of the
attributes will only mention the most important commands that may set
(or preserve) the attribute.

The following attributes may be associated with an article:

read

Menu attribute "." - indicates that the article has been read or saved.
When you leave the group, these articles will be marked permanently
read, and are not presented the next time you enter the group.

seen

Menu attribute "," - indicates that the article is unread, but that it
has been presented on a menu. Depending on how nn is
configured, these articles will automatically be marked read
when you leave the group, they may remain seen, or they may just
be unread the next time you enter the group (see the
auto-junk-seen, confirm-junk-seen, and
retain-seen-status variables).

Only the commands continue (space) and read-skip
(X) will mark unread articles on the current (or all) menu
pages as seen when they are used. Other commands that scroll
through the menu pages or enter reading mode will let unread articles
remain unread.

unread

Menu attribute " " - indicates an unread article. These articles were
unread when you entered the group, and they may remain unread when you
leave the group, unless they have been marked seen by the command
that you used to leave the group or enter reading mode.

selected

Menu line high-lighted (or menu attribute "*") - indicates that you have
selected the article. If you leave the group, the selected articles
will remain selected the next time you enter the group. When you have
read a selected article, the attribute will automatically change to
read.

auto-selected

These articles have the same appearance as selected articles on
the menu, and the only difference is that these articles have been
selected automatically via the auto-selection facility rather than
manually by you. Very few commands differentiate between these
attributes and if they do, it is explicitly stated in this manual.
The main difference is that these articles are only marked as
unread when you leave the group (supposing they will also be
auto-selected the next the group is entered). This simplifies the
house-keeping between invocations of nn.

leave

Menu attribute "+" - indicates that the article is marked for later
treatment by the leave-article (l) command. These
articles may be selected (on demand) when you have read all selected
articles in a group. However, if you do not select them then
immediately, they are stored as the leave-next attribute
described below.

leave-next

Menu attribute "=" - indicates that the article is marked for later
treatment by the leave-next (L) command. This is a
permanent attribute, which will remain on the article until you either
read the article, change the attribute, or it is expired. So
assinging this attribute to an article will effectively keep it unread
until you do something. If the variable select-leave-next
is set, nn will ask whether these articles should be
selected on entry to a group (but naturally, doing so will
change the leave-next attribute to select).

cancelled

Menu attribute "#" - indicates that the article has been cancelled.
This is mainly useful when tidying a folder; it is set by the
cancel (C) command, and can be cleared by any command that
change attributes, e.g. you can select and deselect the article.

killed

Menu attribute "!" - indicates that the article has been killed (e.g.
by the K {kill-select} command). Killed articles are
immediately removed from the menu, so you should not normally see
articles with this attribute. If you do, report it as a bug!

The attributes are saved in two files: .newsrc (read articles)
and .nn/select (other attributes). Plain unread articles are
saved by not occurring in either of these files. Both files are
described in more detail later on.

SELECTION MODE COMMANDS

The primary purpose of the selection mode is of course to select the
articles to be read, but numerous other commands may also be
performed in this mode: saving of articles in files, replying and
following up on articles, mailing/forwarding articles, shell escapes
etc.

As described above, the selected articles are marked either by
showing the corresponding menu line in standout mode (reverse video),
or if the terminal does not have this capability by placing an
asterisk (*) after the selection letter or digit.

Most commands which are used to select articles will work as toggle
commands. If the article is not already selected, the
selectedattribute on the article(s), independent on the previous
attribute. Otherwise, the article(s) will be deselected and
marked unread. Consequently, any article can be marked
unread simply be selecting and deselecting it.

During selection, the cursor will normally be placed on the article
following the last article whose attribute was changed (initially the
first article). The article pointed out by the cursor is called the
current article, and the following commands work relative to the
current article and cursor position.

abc...z 01..9 {article N}

The article with the given identification letter or digit is
selected or deselected. The following article becomes the current
article. If the variable auto-select-subject is set, all
articles with the same subject as the given article are selected.

.{select}

Select or deselect the current article and move the cursor to the next
article.

,{line+1}

Move the cursor to the next article. You can use the down arrow
as well.

/{line-1}

Move cursor to previous article. You can use the up arrow
as well.

*{select-subject}

Select or deselect all articles with same subject as current
article. This will work across several menu pages if necessary.

-x{select-range}

Select or deselect the range of articles between the current article
and the article specified by x. For example you can select all
articles from e to k by simply typing e-k.

The following commands may change the attributes on all articles on
the current menu page, or on all articles on all menu pages.

@{select-invert}

Reverse selections. All selected articles on the current page are
deselected, and vice-versa. (Use the find command to select all
articles.)

~{unselect-all}

Deselect all auto-selected articles in the group (this works
across all menu pages). If the command is executed twice, the
selected articles will also be deselected.

+{select-auto}

Perform auto-selections in the group (see the section on "auto
kill/select" below).

={find}

Prompts for a regular expression, and selects all articles on the menu
(all pages) which matches the regular expression. Depending on the
variable select-on-sender matching is performed against the
subject (default) or the sender of the articles. An empty
answer (= return) will reuse the previous expression.
Example: The command = . return will select all articles
in the group.

J{junk-articles}

This is a very versatile command which can be used to perform all
sorts of attribute changes, either on individual articles, all
articles on the current menu page, all articles with a specific
attribute, or all available articles. To access all the functions of
this command, the J key may have to be hit up to four times,
to loop through different one-line menus. The full functionality of
the junk-articles command is described in a separate section
below.

L{leave-next}

This is a specialized version of the generic J
{junk-articles} command to set the leave-next attribute on
a subset of the articles on the menu. It is also described further
below.

The following commands move between the pages belonging to the same
news group when there are more articles than will fit on a single
page. These commands will not change any article attributes.

>{page+1}

Goto next menu page.

<{page-1}

Goto previous menu page, or to last menu page if on first menu page.

${page=$}

Goto last menu page.

^{page=1}

Goto first menu page.

The following commands are used to enter reading mode for the selected
articles, and to move between news groups (in selection mode). They
may change article attributes if noted below.

space{continue}

Continue to next menu page, or if on last menu page, read the selected
articles. If no articles have been selected, continue to the next news
group. The unread articles on the current menu page will
automatically be marked seen.

return{continue-no-mark}

Identical to the continue command, except that the unread
articles on the current menu page will remain unread.
(The
newline
key has the same effect).

Z{read-return}

Enter reading modeimmediately
with the currently selected articles. When all
articles have been read, return to selection mode in the
current
group. It will mark selected articles read as they are
read, but unread articles are not normally changed (can be
controlled with the variable marked-by-read-return.)

X{read-skip}

Mark all unmarked articles seen on all menu pages (or the
pages defined by the marked-by-read-skip variable), and enter
reading mode immediately with the currently selected articles.
As the selected articles are read, they are marked read. When
all selected articles have been read, nn will enter selection
mode in the next news group. When no articles are selected,
it goes directly to the next group. This can be used to skip all
the articles in a large news group without having to go through all
the menu pages.

If you don't want to read the current group now, but want to keep it
for later, you can use the following commands which will only mark
seen and read articles as read. Currently selected
articles will still be selected the next time you enter the group.
None of these commands will change any attributes themselves (by default).

N{next-group}

Go forward to the next group in the presentation sequence. If the
variable marked-by-next-group is set articles on the menu can
optionally be marked seen

P{previous}

Go back to the previous group. This command will enter selection mode
on the last active group (two P commands in sequence will bring you to
the current group). If there are still some unread articles in
the group, only those articles will be shown. Otherwise, all the
articles which were unread when nn was invoked will be shown
marked with the read attribute (which can be changed as usual).

As described in the "Article Attributes" section, the read and
seen articles will normally be marked read when you leave the
group, and these articles are not shown the next time you enter the
group.

In all releases prior to release 6.4, it was impossible to have
individual articles in a group marked unread when you left a
group, and the default behaviour of release 6.4 onwards will closely
match the traditional behaviour. This means that the seen and
read articles are treated alike for most practical purposes
with the default variable settings.

If you don't like nn to silently mark the seen articles
read, you can set the variable confirm-junk-seen to get
nn to prompt you for confirmation before doing this, or you can
unset the variable auto-junk-seen to simply keep the seen
articles for the next time you enter the group. You then have to use
the J {junk-articles} to mark articles read.

Using return {continue-no-mark} will also allow you to keep
articles unread rather than marking them seen when
scrolling through the menu pages and entering reading mode. If this
is your preferred reading style, you can remap space to this
command.

CONSOLIDATED MENUS

Normally, nn will use one menu line for each article, so if
there are many articles with identical subjects, each menu page will
only contain a few different subjects. To have each subject occur
only once on the menu, nn can operate with consolidated menus by
setting the variable consolidated-menu.

When consolidated menus are used, nn operates with two kinds of
subjects: open and closed.

An open subject is a subject which is shown in the traditional way
with one menu line for each article with the given subject. In other
words, when consolidated menus are not used, all subjects are open (by
default).

A closed subject is a multi-article subject which is presented
by a single menu line. This line will be the normal menu line for the
first (oldest) article with the subject, but with the subject field
annotated with a bracketed number showing the number of articles with
that subject, e.g.

In this example, there are four unread articles with subject `a' of
which the first is posted by me and has 12 lines. The rest of the
articles are hidden, and will only be shown on request. The `.'
marker on subject `b' shows that all three articles within that
subject have been read (or seen).

To select (or deselect) ALL the articles within a closed subject,
simply select the article shown on the menu; this will automatically
select (or deselect) the rest (see auto-select-closed). When all the
unread articles within a closed subject are selected, the menu line
will be high-lighted.

If you want to view the individual articles in a subject (maybe to
select individual articles), you can open the subject with the
commands:

(x

Open subject x on menu.

((

Open current subject.

When you have completed viewing the opened subject, you can close it
again using the commands:

)x

Close subject x on menu (x is any article with the subject).

))

Close current subject.

In the basic layout of the menu line for a closed subject as shown
above, ALL articles in the closed subject are supposed to be either:

unread

The menu line is not high-lighted.

selected

Menu line is fully high-lighted (if all UNREAD are selected).

read/seen

There is a `.' (read attribute) following the article id.

If neither of these cases apply, i.e. there is a mixture of unread,
selected, and seen/read articles, the bracketed number will have one
of the following formats:

[U:T]

There are U unread articles of T total (U<T).

[S/T]

There are S selected articles of T total (S<U=T).

[S/U:T]

There are S selected of U unread of T total (S<U<T).

If there are any selected articles (S>0), the information between the
brackets will be high-lighted (to show that something is selected, but
not all the unread articles).

Notice: Consolidated menus only work with the `subject' and
`lexical' sorting methods.

THE JUNK-ARTICLES AND LEAVE-NEXT COMMANDS

The J {junk-articles} command is a very flexible command
which can perform all sorts of attribute changes, either on individual
articles, all articles on the current menu page, all articles with a
specific attribute, or all available articles.

To access all the functions of this command, the J key may have
to be hit up to four times, to loop through different one-line menus:

Mark Read

This submenu allows you to mark articles read.

Unmark

This submenu allows you to mark articles unread.

Select

This submenu allows you to select articles based on their attribute.

Kill

This submenu allows you to mark articles read and remove them
from the menu based on their attribute.

The L {leave-next} command is an extension of the J
command with a fifth menu:

Leave

This menu allows you to mark articles for later handling with the
leave-next attribute which will keep the article unread until
you explicitly change the attribute (e.g. by reading it) or it is
expired.

For each of these submenus, nn will list the most plausible
choices you may use, but all of the following answers can be used at
all submenus. When you have entered a choice, nn will afterward
ask whether the change should be made to all menu pages or only the
current page.

J

Show next submenu.

L

Change attribute on all leave articles.

N

Change attribute on all leave-next articles.

R

Change attribute on all read articles.

S

Change attribute on all seen articles.

U

Change attribute on all unmarked (i.e. unread) articles.

A

Change attribute on all articles no matter their current attribute.

*

Change attribute on all selected articles on the current page.

+

Change attribute on all selected articles on all pages.

a-z0-9

Change attribute on one or more specific articles on the current page.
You end the list of articles by a space or by using one of the
other choices described above.

.

Change attribute on current article.

, /

Move the current article down or up the menu without changing any
attributes.

READING MODE COMMANDS

In reading mode, the selected articles are presented one page at
a time. To get the next page of an article, simply hit space,
and when you are on the last page of an article, hit space to
get to the next selected article. Articles are normally marked read
when you go to the next article, while going back to the menu,
quitting nn, etc. will retain the attribute on the current
article.

When you are on the last page of the last article, hit space to
enter selection mode on the next group (or the current group if
reading mode was entered using the Z command).

To read an article, the following text scrolling commands are
available:

space{continue}

Scroll one page forward or continue with the next article or
group as described above.

backspace / delete {page-1}

Go one page backwards in article.

d{page+1/2}

Scroll one half page forward.

u{page-1/2}

Go one half page backwards.

return{line+1}

Scroll one line forward in the article.

tab{skip-lines}

Skip over lines starting with the same character as the last line on
the current page. This is useful to skip over included text or to the
next file in a shell archive.

^{page=1}

Move to the first page (excluding the header) of the article.

${page=$}

Move to the last page of the article.

gN{line=@}

Move to line N in the article.

/regexp{find}

Search forward for text matching the regular expression regexp
in the article. If a matching text is found, it will be high-lighted.

.{find-next}

Repeat search for last regular expression.

h{page=0}

Show the header of the article, and continue from the top of the
article.

H{full-digest}

If the current article is extracted from a digest, show the entire
digest article including its header.
Another H command will return to the current subarticle.

D{rot13}

Turn rot13 (caesar) decryption on and off for the current
article, and redraw current page. If the article is saved while it is
decrypted on the screen, it will be saved in decrypted form as well!

c{compress}

Turn compression on and off for the current article and redraw current
page. With compression turned on, multiple spaces and tabs are shown
as a single space. This makes it much easier to read right justified
text which separate words with several spaces. (See also the
compress variable)

The following commands are used to move among the selected articles.

n{next-article}

Move to next selected article. This command skips the rest of the
current article, marks it read, and jumps directly to the first
page of the next selected article (or to the next group if it was the
last selected article).

l{leave-article}

Mark the current article with the leave attribute and continue
with the next selected article. When all the selected articles
in the current group have been read, these left over articles
can be automatically selected and shown once more, or the treatment
can be postponed to the next time you enter the group.
This is particularly useful if you see an article
which you may want to respond to unless one the following articles is
already saying what you intended to say.

L{leave-next}

Mark the current article with the leave-next attribute and
continue with the next selected article.

p{previous}

Goto previous article.

k{next-subject}

Kill subject. Skips rest of current article, and all following
articles with the same subject. The skipped articles are marked
read. To kill a subject permanently use the K command.

*{select-subject}

Show next article with same subject (even if it is not
selected). This command will select all following articles with
the same subject as the current article
(similar to the `*' command in selection mode). This can be used to
select only the first article on a subject in selection mode, and then
select all follow-ups in reading mode if you find the article
interesting.

a{advance-article}

Goto the following article on the menu even if it is not selected.
This command skips the rest of the current article
and jumps directly to the first page of the next article (it will not skip
to the next group if it is the last article). The attribute on the
current article will be restored, except for the unread
attribute which will be changed to seen.

b{back-article}

Goto the article before current article on the menu even if it is not
selected. This is similar to the a command, except for the
direction.

The following commands perform an
immediate return from reading mode to selection mode in
the
current
group or skip to the next group.

={goto-menu}

Return to selection mode in the current group (think of = as the
"icon" of the selection menu). The articles read so far will be
marked read.

N{next-group}

Skip the rest of the selected and unread articles in the
current group and go directly to the next group. Only the read
(and seen) articles in the current group are marked as read.

X{read-skip}

Mark all articles in the current group as read and go directly
to the next group. (You will be asked to confirm this command.)

PREVIEWING ARTICLES IN SELECTION MODE

In selection mode, it is possible to read a specific article on the
menu without entering reading mode for all the selected articles on
the menu. Using the commands described below will enter reading mode
for one article only, and then return to the menu mode immediately
after (depending on the setting of the preview-continuation
variable).

If there are more than 5 free lines at the bottom of the menu screen,
nn will use that space to show the article (a minimal preview
window can be permanently allocated with the
window
variable). Otherwise,
the screen will be cleared to show the article.

After previewing an article, it will be marked read (if the
preview-mark-read variable is set), and the following article
will become the current article.

%x{preview}

Preview articlex.

%%{preview}

Preview the current article.

When the article is being shown, the following reading mode commands
are very useful:

={goto-menu}

Skip the rest of the current article, and return to menu mode.

n{next-article}

Skip the rest of the current article, and preview the next article.

l{leave-article}

Mark the article as selected (!) on the menu for handling later
on. Then skip the rest of the current article, and preview the next
article.

%y{preview}

Preview articley .

If the variable auto-preview-mode is set, just hitting the
article id in menu mode will enter preview mode on the specified
article.

SAVING ARTICLES

The following commands are used to save articles in files, unpack
archives, decode binaries, etc. It is possible to use the commands in
both reading mode to save the current article and in selection mode to
save one or more articles on the menu.

The saved articles will be appended to the specified file(s)
followed by an empty line each. Both files and directories will be
created as needed. When an article has been saved in a file, a
message reporting the number of lines saved will be shown if the
save-report variable is set (default on).

S{save-full}

Save articles including the full article header.

O{save-short}

Save articles with a short header
containing only the name of the sender, the subject, and the posting
date of the article.

E{save-header}

Save only the header of the articles.

W{save-body}

Write articlewithout
a header.

:print{print}

Print article. Instead of a file name,
this command will prompt for the print command to which the current
article will be piped. The default print command is specified at
compile time, but it can be changed by setting the
printer
variable. The output will be identical to that of the
O
command.

:patch{patch}

Send articles through patch(1) (or the program defined in thepatch-command variable). Instead of a file name, you will be
prompted for the name of a directory in which you want the patch
command to be executed. nn will then pipe the body of the
article through the patch command.
The output from the patch process will be shown on the screen and
also appended to a file named Patch.Result in the patch directory.

:unshar{unshar}

Unshar articles. You will be prompted for the name of a directory in
which you want nn to unshar the articles. nn will then
pipe the proper parts of the article body into a Bourne Shell whose
working directory will be set to the specified directory.
During the unpacking, the normal output from the unshar process will
appear on the screen, and the menu or article text will be redrawn when
the process is finished.
The output is also appended to a file named Unshar.Result in
the unshar directory.
The file specified in unshar-header-file (default
"Unshar.Headers") in the unshar directory will
contain the header and initial text (before the shar data) from the
article. You can use the `G' {goto-group} command to look at
the Unshar.Headers file.

:decode{decode}

Decode uuencoded articles into binary files. You will be
prompted for the name of a directory in which you want nn to
place the decoded binary files (the file names are taken from the
uuencoded data).
nn will combine several articles into single files as needed,
and you can even decode unrelated packages (into the same directory)
with one decode command.
To be able to decode a binary file which spans several articles,
nn may have to ignore lines which fail the normal sanity checks
on uuencoded data instead of treating them as transmission errors.
Consequently, it is strongly recommended to check the resulting
decoded file using the checksum which is normally contained in the
original article. (Actually, you are also supposed to do this after
decoding with a stand-alone uudecode program).
The header and initial information in the decoded articles are saved
in the file specified in decode-header-file (default
"Decode.Headers") in the same directory as the decoded files.
If decode-skip-prefix is non-null, :decode will attempt
to ignore up to that many characters on each line to find the encoded data.
This is particularly useful in some binaries groups where files are
both uuencoded and packed with shar; nn will ignore the prefix
added to each line by shar, and thus be able to unshar, concatenate,
and decode multi-part postings automatically.

In reading mode, the following keys can also be used to invoke the
save commands:

s

Same as
S.

o

Same as
O.

w

Same as
W.

P

Same as
:print.

The save commands will prompt for a file name which is expanded
according to the rules described in the section on file name expansion
below. For each group, it is possible to specify a default save file
in the init file, either in connection with the group presentation
sequence or in a separate save-files section (see below).
If a default save file is specified for the group, nn will show
this on the prompt line when it prompts for the file name. You can
edit this name as usual, but if you kill the entire name immediately,
nn will replace the default name with the last file name you
entered. If you kill this as well, nn will leave you with a
blank line.

If the
quick-save
variable is set, nn will only prompt for a save file name when
the current article is inside a folder; otherwise, the default save
file defined in the init file will be used unconditionally.

If the file (and directories in the path) does not exist,
nn
will ask whether the file (and the directories) should be created.

If the file name contains an asterisk, e.g.

part*.shar

nn will save each of the articles in uniquely named files
constructed by replacing the asterisk by numbers from the sequence 1,
2, 3, etc. The format of the string that replaces the * can be
changed with the save-counter variable, and the first number to
use can be changed via save-counter-offset.

In selection mode, nn will prompt you for the identifier
of one or more articles you want to save. When you don't want to save
more articles, just hit space. The saved articles will be
marked read.

If you enter an asterisk `*' when you are prompted for an article to
save, nn will automatically save all the selected articles
on the current menu page and mark them read.

Likewise, if you enter a plus `+', nn will save all the selected
articles on all menu pages and mark them read.

This is very useful to unpack an entire package using the
:unshar and :decode commands. It can also be used in
combination with the save selected articles feature to save a
selection of articles in separate, successively numbered files. But do
not confuse these two concepts! The
S*
and
S+
commands can be used to save the selected articles in a single file as
well as in separate files, and the save in separate files
feature can be used also when saving individual articles, either in
the selection mode, or in the article reading mode.

When articles are saved in a file with a full or partial header, any
header lines in the
body
of the article will be escaped by a tilde (e.g. ~From: ...) to enable
nn to split the folder into separate articles.
The escape string can be redefined via the
embedded-header-escape variable.

Articles can optionally be saved in MAIL or MMDF compatible format by
setting the mail-format and mmdf-format variables.
These variables only specify the format used when creating a new folder,
while appending to an existing folder will be done in the format of the
folder (unless folder-format-check is false).

FOLDER MAINTENANCE

When more than one article is saved in a folder, nn is able to
split the folder, and each article in the folder can be treated like
a separate article.

This means that you can save, decode, reply, follow-up, etc. just as
with the original article.

You can also cancel (delete) individual articles in a folder
using the normal C {cancel} command described later.
When you quit from the folder, you will then be given the option to
remove the cancelled articles from the folder.

The original folder is saved in a file named `BackupFolder~' in the
.nn directory (see the backup-folder-path variable) by
renaming or copying the old folder as appropriate.
When the folder
has been compressed, the backup folder will be removed unless the
variable keep-backup-folder is set.

If all articles in a folder are cancelled, the folder will be removed
or truncated to zero length (whatever is allowed by directory and file
permissions).
In this case no backup folder is retained even when
keep-backup-folder is set!

If the variable trace-folder-packing is set, nn will show
which articles are kept and which are removed as the folder is
rewritten.

Folders are rewritten in the format of the original folder, i.e. the
mail-format and mmdf-format variables are ignored.

FILE NAME EXPANSION

When the save commands prompts for a file name, the following file
name expansions are performed on the file name you enter:

+folder

The
+
is replaced by the contents of the
folder
variable (default value "~/News/") resulting in the name of a file in the
folderdirectory.
Examples:

+emacs, +nn, +sources/shar/nn

+

A single plus is replaced by the expansion of the file name contained in the
default-save-file
variable (or by folder-save-file when saving from a folder).

~/file

The
~
is replaced by the contents of the environment variable HOME, i.e. the
path name of your home directory.
Examples:

~/News/emacs, ~/News/nn, ~/src/shar/nn

~user/file

The ~user part is replaced by the user's home
directory as defined in the /etc/passwd file.

|command-line

Instead of writing to a file, the articles are piped to the given
shell (/bin/sh) command-line. Each save or write command will create a
separate pipe, but all articles saved or written in one command (in
selection mode) are given
as input to the same shell command. Example:

| pr | lp

This will print the articles on the printer after they have been piped
through pr.
It is possible to create separate pipes for each saved article by
using a double pipe symbol in the beginning of the command, e.g.

|| cd ~/src/nn ; patch

The following symbols are expanded in a file name or command:

$F

will be expanded to the name of the current group with the periods
replaced by slashes, e.g. rec/music/synth.

$G

will be expanded to the name of the current group.

$L

will be expanded to the last component of the name of the
current group. You may use this to create default save file names
like +src/$L in the comp.sources groups.

$N

will be expanded to the (local) article number, e.g. 1099. In
selection mode it is only allowed at the end of the file name!

$(VAR)

is replaced by the string value of the environment variable VAR.

Using these symbols, a simple naming scheme for `default folder name' is
+$G
which will use the group name as folder name. Another possibility is
+$F/$N.

As mentioned above, you can also instruct nn to save a series of
files in separate, unique files. All that is required is that the
file name contains an asterisk, e.g.

+src/hype/part*.shar

This will cause each of the articles to be saved in separate, unique
files named part1.shar, part2.shar, and so on, always choosing a part
number that results in a unique file name (i.e. if part1.shar did
already exist, the first article would be saved in part2.shar, the
next in part3.shar, and so on).

FILE AND GROUP NAME COMPLETION

When entering a file name or a news group name, a simple
completion
feature is available using the space, tab, and ? keys.

Hitting space anywhere during input will complete the
currentcomponent
of the file name or group name with the
first
available possibility.

If this possibility is not the one you want, keep on hitting
space
until it appears.

When the right completion has appeared, you can just continue typing
the file or group name, or you can hit
tab
to fix the current component, and get the
first
possibility for the next component, and then use
space
to go through the other possible completions.

The
?
key will produce a list of the possible
completions
of the current component. If the list is too long for the available
space on screen, the key can be repeated to get the next part of the
list.

The current completion can be deleted with the
erase
key.

The default value for a file name is the last file name you have
entered, so if you enter a
space
as the first character after the prompt, the last file name will be
repeated (and you can edit it if you like). In some cases, a string
will already be written for you in the prompt line, and to get the
default value in these cases, use the kill key. This also means
that if you neither want the initial value, nor the default value, you
will have to hit the kill twice to get a clean prompt line.

POSTING AND RESPONDING TO ARTICLES

In both selection mode and reading mode you can post new articles,
post follow-ups to articles, send replies to the author of an article,
and you can send mail to another user with the option of including an
article in the letter. In reading mode, a response is made to the
current article, while in selection mode you will be prompted for an
article to respond to.

The following commands are available (the lower-case equivalents are
also available in reading mode):

R{reply}

Reply through mail to the author of the article. This is the preferred
way to respond to an article unless you think your reply is of general
interest.

F{follow}

Follow-up with an article in the same newsgroup (unless an alternative
group is specified in the article header).
The distribution of the follow-up is normally the same as the original
article, but this can be modified via the follow-distribution
variable.

M{mail}

Mail a letter orforward
an article to a single recipient.
In selection mode, you will be prompted for an article to include
in your letter, and in reading mode you will be asked if the current
article should be included in the letter.
You will then be prompted for the recipient of the letter (default
recipient is yourself)
and the subject of the letter (if an article is included, you may hit
space
to get the default subject which is the subject of the included article).
The header of the article is only included in the posted letter if
it is forwarded (i.e. not edited), or if the variable
include-full-header is set.

:post{post}

Post a new article to any newsgroup. This command will prompt you for
a
comma-separated
list of newsgroups to post to (you cannot enter a space because
space
is used for group name completion as described below).
If you enter ? {help-key} as the first key, nn
will show you a list of all available news groups and their purpose.
While paging through this list, you can enter q to quit looking
at the list. You can also enter / followed by a regular
expression (typically a single word) which will cause nn to show
a (much shorter) list containing only the lines matching the regular
expression.
Normally, you will be prompted for the distribution of the article
with the default take from default-distribution, but this can be
changed via the post-distribution variable.

Generally, nn will construct a file with a suitable header, optionally
include a copy of the article in the file with each non-empty line
prefixed by a `>' character (except in mail mode), and invoke an
editor of your choice (using the EDITOR environment variable) on this
file, positioning you on the first line of the body of the article (if
it knows the editor).

When you have completed editing the message, it will compare it to the
unedited file, and if they are identical (i.e. you did not make any
changes to the file), or it is empty, the operation is cancelled.
Otherwise you will be prompted for an action to take on the
constructed article (enter first letter followed by return, or
just return to take the default action):

If you have selected a 7-bit character set (this is determined by the
values of the charset and data-bits variables), nn
will not allow you to post an article or send a letter whose body
contains characters with the high-order bit set. It will warn you after
you have first edited the message and disable the c)c, m)ail,
p)ost, s)end and y)es actions. You can then either e)dit the message
to delete those characters, use 7)bit to strip the high-order bits,
a)bort the message, or h)old it and select an 8-bit character set from
nn.

To complete an unfinished response saved by the h)old command, simply
enter any response action, e.g. R {reply}. This will
notice the unfinished response and ask you whether you want to
complete it now. Only one unfinished response can exist at a time.
Notice that the $A environment variable may no longer be valid as a
path to the original article when the response is completed.

If your message contains 8-bit characters, the charset variable
is not set to "unknown" and the message does not already have a
MIME-Version or Content-XXX header, nn will add
the following headers to your message before sending it:

It must be noted that sending 8-bit characters over the current news
and mail networks is risky at best; although large parts of the network
will pass through such characters unchanged, high-order bits may occasionally
be stripped. Although the MIME standard provides solutions for this by
encoding the characters, this is not yet supported by nn.
Adding the above headers is an interim solution that is compatible with
current practice and is much better than just sending the message without
any hints about the character set used.

JUMPING TO OTHER GROUPS

By default nn will present the news groups in a predefined
sequence (see the section on Presentation Sequence later on).
To override this sequence and have a look at any other group the
G
{goto-group} command available in both selection and reading
mode enables you to move freely between all the newsgroups.

Furthermore, the
G
command enables you to open folders and other files, to read old
articles you have read before, and to grep for a specific subject in a
group.

It is important to notice that normally the goto command is recursive,
i.e. a new menu level is created when the specified group or
folder is presented, and when it has been read, nn will continue
the activity in the group that was presented before the goto command
was executed. However, if there are unread articles in the target
group you can avoid entering a new menu level by using the
j
reply described below. The current menu level (i.e. number of nested
goto commands) will be shown in the prompt line as "<N>" (in reverse
video).

The goto command is very powerful, but unfortunately also a little bit
tricky at first sight, because the facilities it provides depend on
the context in which the command is used.

When executed, the goto command will prompt you for the name of the
newsgroup, folder, or file to open. It will use the first letter
you enter to distinguish these three possibilities:

return

An empty answer is equivalent to the current newsgroup.

letter

The answer is taken to be the name of a newsgroup.
If a news group with the given name does not exist, nn will
treat the answer as a regular expression and locate the first group
in the presentation sequence (or among all groups) whose name matches
the expression.

+

The answer is taken to be the name of a folder. If only `+' is
entered, it is equivalent to the default save file for the current
group.

/ or ./ or ~/

The answer is taken to be the name of a file, either relative to the
current directory, relative to your home directory, or an absolute
path name for the file.

%

In reading mode, this reply corresponds to reading the current article
(and splitting it as a digest). In selection mode, it will prompt for
an article on the menu to read.

@

This choice is equivalent to the archive file for the current group.

= and number

These answers are equivalent to the same answers described below
applied to the current group (e.g. G return = and G = are
equivalent).

Specifying a folder, a file, or an article (with %) will cause
nn to treat the file like a digest and split it into separate
articles (not physically!) which are then presented on a menu in the
usual way, allowing you to read or save individual subarticles from
the folder.

When you enter a group name, nn will ask you how many articles
in the group you want to see on the menu. You can give the following
answers:

a number N

In this case you will get the newest N articles in the group, or if
you specified the current group (by hitting return to the group
name prompt or entering the number directly), you will get that many
extra articles included on the same menu (without creating a new
menu level).

j

This answer can only be given if there are unread articles in the
group. It will instruct nn to jump directly to the specified group in
the presentation sequence without creating a new menu level.

u

This instructs nn to present the unread articles in the
group (if there are any). If you have already read the group (in the
current invocation of nn), the u answer will instruct
nn to present the articles that were unread when you entered
nn.

a

This instruct nn to present all articles in the group.

sword or =word

This instructs nn to search all articles in the groups,
but only present the articles containing the word word in the
subject. Notice that case is ignored when searching for the word in
the subject lines.

nword

Same as the s form except that it searched for articles where
the sender name matches word.

eword

Same as the s form except that it Psearched for articles where
either the subject or the sender name matches word.

word = /regexp

When the first character of the word specified with the s,
n, and e forms is a slash `/', the rest of the input is
interpreted as a regular expression to search for. Notice that
regular expression matching is case insensitive when
case-fold-search is set (default).

return

The meaning of an empty answer depends on the context: if there are
unread articles in the specified group the unread articles will be
presented, otherwise all articles in the group will be included
in the menu.

If you specified the current group, and the menu already contains all
the available articles, nn will directly prompt for a word to
search for in the subject of all articles (the prompt will be an equal
sign.)

When the goto command creates a new menu level, nn will not
perform auto kill or selection in the group. You can use the +
command in menu mode to perform the auto-selections.

There are three commands in the goto family:

G{goto-group}

This is the general goto command described above.

B{back-group}

Backup one or more groups. You can hit this key one or more times to
go back in the groups already presented (including those without new
articles); when you have found the group you are looking for, hit
space to enter it.

A{advance-group}

Advance one or more groups. This command is similar to the B
command, but operates in the opposite direction.

N{next-group}

When used within an A or B command, it skips forward to
the next group in the sequence with unread articles or which has
previously been visited.

P{previous}

When used within an A or B command, it skips backwards to
the preceding group in the sequence with unread articles or which has
previously been visited.

Once you have entered an A or Bcommand, you can freely mix
the A, B, P, and N commands to find the group
you want, and you can also use the G command to be prompted for
a group name.

To show the use of the goto command some typical examples on
its use are given below:

Present the unread articles in the dk.general groupG dk.general returnuJump directly to the gnu.emacs group and continue from thereG gnu.emacs returnjInclude the last 10 READ articles in the current group menuG 10 returnFind all articles in rec.music.misc on the subject FloydG rec.music.misc return= floyd returnOpen the folder +nnG +nn returnSplit current article as a digest (in reading mode)G%

AUTOMATIC KILL AND SELECTION

When there is a subject or an author which you are either very
interested in, or find completely uninteresting, you can easily
instruct nn to auto-select or auto-kill articles
with specific subjects or from specific authors. These instructions
are stored in a kill file, and the most common types of entries
can be created using the following command:

K{kill-select}

Create an entry in your personal kill file. The contents of the entry
is specified during a short dialog that is described in details below.
This command is available in both selection and reading mode.

Entries in the kill file may apply to a single newsgroup or to all
newsgroups. Furthermore, entries may be permanent or they may be
expired a given number of days after their entry.

To increase performance, nn uses a compiled version of the kill
file which is read in when nn is invoked. The compiled kill
file will automatically be updated if the normal kill file has been
modified.

The following dialog is used to build the kill file entry:

AUTO (k)ill or (s)elect (CR => Kill subject 30 days)

If you simply want nn to kill all articles with the subject of
the current article (in reading mode) or a specific article (which
nn will prompt for in selection mode), just hit return.
This will cause nn to create an entry in the kill file to kill
the current (or specified) subject in the current group for a period
of 30 days (which should be enough for the discussion to die out).

You can control the default kill period, or change it into a "select"
period via the default-kill-select variable.

If this "default behaviour" is not what you want, just answer either
k or s to kill or select articles, respectively, which
will bring you on to the rest of the questions.

AUTO SELECT on (s)ubject or (n)ame (s)

(The SELECT will be substituted with KILL depending on the
previous answer). Here you specify whether you want the kill or
select to depend on the subject of the article (s or
space), or on the name of the author (n).

SELECT NAME:

(Again SELECT may be substituted with KILL and
SUBJECT may replace NAME). You must now enter a name (or
subject) to select (or kill). In reading mode, you may just hit
return (or %) to use the name (or subject) of the current
article. In selection mode, you can use the name (or subject) from an
article on the menu by answering with % followed by the
corresponding article identifier.

When the name or subject is taken from an article (the current or one
from the menu), nn will only select or kill articles where the
name or subject matches the original name or subject exactly including
case.

If the first character typed at the prompt is a slash `/', the rest of
the line is used as a regular expression which is used to match
the name or subject (case insensitive).

Otherwise, nn will select or kill articles which contain
the specified string anywhere in the name or subject (ignoring case).

SELECT in (g)roup `dk.general' or in (a)ll groups (g)

You must now specify whether the selection or kill should apply to the
current group only (g or space) or to all groups (a).

Lifetime of entry in days (p)ermanent (30)

You can now specify the lifetime of the entry, either by entering a
number specifying the number of days the entry should be active, or
p to specify the entry as a permanent entry. An empty reply is
equivalent to 30 days.

CONFIRM SELECT ....

Finally, you will be asked to confirm the entry, and you should
especially note the presence or absence of the word exact which
specify whether an exact match applies for the entry.

Related variables:
default-kill-select, kill.

THE FORMAT OF THE KILL FILE

The kill file consists of one line for each entry. Empty lines and
lines starting with a # character are ignored. nn automatically
places a # character in the first position of expired entries when it
compiles the kill file. You can then edit the kill file manually from
time to time to clean out these entries.

Each line has the following format

[expire time :] [group name] : flags : string [: string]...

Permanent entries have no expire time (in which case the colon
is omitted as well!). Otherwise, the expire time defines the
time (as a time_t value) when the entry should be expired.

The group name field can have three forms:

news.group.name

If it is the name of a single news group (e.g. comp.unix),
the entry applies to that group only.

/regular expression

If it starts with a slash `/' followed by a regular expression
(e.g. /^news\..*), the entry applies to all groups whose name are
matched by the regular expression.

empty

An empty group field will apply the entry to all groups.

The flags field consists of a list of characters which
identifies the type of entry, and the interpretation of each
string field. When used, the flag characters must be used in
the order in which they are described below:

~(optional)

When this flag is present on any of the entries for a specific group,
it causes all entires which are not auto-selected to be killed.
This is a simple way to say: I'm interested in this and that, but
nothing else.

+or ! (optional)

Specify an auto-select + or an auto-kill ! entry,
respectively. If neither are used, the article is neither selected
nor killed which is useful in combination with the `~' flag.

> (optional)

When used with a subject (flag s), the kill entry only matches
follow-ups to that subject (i.e. where the Subject: line starts with
Re:). For example, to kill all "Re:"'s in rec.humor use the following
kill entry: rec.humor:!>s/:.

< (optional)

When used with a subject (flag s), the kill entry only matches
base articles with that subject (i.e. where the Subject: line does not
start with Re:). For example, to kill all articles asking for help
(but not follow-ups) in the tex group, add this to your kill file:

comp.text.tex:!s</:^HELP

n or s or a (mandatory)

Specify whether the corresponding string applies to the name n
or to the subject s of an article. If flag a is used, the
corresponding string is ignored (but must be present), and the entry
applies to articles with a non-empty References: line.

/ (optional)

Specifies that the corresponding string is a regular expression
which the sender or subject is matched against. If not specified, a simple
string match is performed using the given string.

= (optional)

Specifies that the match against the name or subject is case
sensitive. Furthermore, when regular expression matching
is not used, the name or subject must be of the same length
of the string to match.
Otherwise, the match will be case insensitive, and a string may
occur anywhere in the name or subject to match.

| or & (mandatory if multiple strings)

If more than one string is specified, the set of flags
corresponding to each string must be separated by either an
or operator `|' or an and operator `&'. The
and operator has a higher precedence than the or operator, e.g. a
complex match expression a|b&c|d will succeed if either of
a, b&c, or d matches.

The string field in the entry is the name, subject or regular
expression that will be matched against the name or subject of each
article in the group (or all groups). Colons and backslashes must be
escaped with a backslash in the string.

Example 2: Kill all articles which are neither from `Tom' or `Eve' in
some.group. Select only articles from Eve:

some.group:~n:Tom

some.group:+n:Eve

The second example can also be written as a single entry with an or
operator (in this case, the select/kill attribute only applies to the succeeding strings):

some.group:~n|+n:Tom:Eve

To remove expired entries, to "undo" a K command, and to make
the more advanced entries with more than one string, you will have to
edit the kill file manually. To recompile the file, you can use the
:compile command. When you invoke nn, it will also
recompile the kill file if the compiled version is out of date.

SHELL ESCAPES

The
!
commands available in selection and reading mode are identical in
operation (with one exception). When you enter the shell escape
command, you will be prompted for a shell command. This command will
be fed to the shell specified in the shell variable (default
loaded from the SHELL environment variable or /bin/sh) after the
following substitutions have been performed on the command:

File name expansion

The earlier described file name expansions will be performed on all
arguments.

$G

will be substituted with the name of the current news group.

$L

will be substituted with the last component of the name of the
current news group.

$F

will be substituted with the name of the current news group with the
periods replaced by slashes.

$N

will be substituted with the (local) article number (only defined in
reading mode).

$A

is replaced by the full path name of the file containing the current article
(only defined in reading mode).

%

Same as $A.

$(VAR)

is replaced by the string value of the environment variable VAR.

When the shell command is completed, you will be asked to hit any key
to continue. If you hit the
!
key again, you will be prompted for a new shell command. Any other
key will redraw the screen and return you to the mode you came from.

Related variables:
shell, shell-restrictions.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS

Below are more useful commands which are available in both
selection and reading modes.

U{unsub}

Unsubscribe to the current group. You will not see this group
any more unless you explicitly request it. If the variable
unsubscribe-mark-read is set, all articles in the group will be
marked read when you unsubscribe.
If the variable keep-unsubscribed is not set, the group will
be removed from .newsrc. If you are not subscribing to the group, you
will be given the possibility to resubscribe to the group! This
may be used in connection with the G command to resubscribe a
group.

C{cancel}

Cancel (delete) an article in the current group or folder. Cancelling
articles in a folder will cause the folder to be rewritten when it is
closed. In selection mode, you will be prompted for the identifier of
the article to cancel. Normal users can only cancel their own
articles.
See also the section on folder maintenance.

Y{overview}

Provide an overview of the groups with unread articles.

"{layout}

Change menu layout in selection mode. The menu will be redrawn using
the next layout (cycling through ..., 2, 3, 4, 0, 1, ...)

Most of the commands in nn are bound to a key and can be activated
by a single keystroke. However, there are a few commands that
cannot be bound to a key directly.

As shown in the keystroke command descriptions, all commands have a
name, and it is possible to activate a command by name with the
extended command key (:). Hitting this key will prompt
you for the name of a command (and parameters). For example, an
alternative to hitting the R key to reply to an article is to
enter the extended command :reply followed by return. The
:post and :unshar commands described earlier can also be
bound to a key. The complete list of commands which can be bound to
keys is provided in the section on Key Mappings below.

The following extended commands cannot be bound to a key, mainly
because they require additional parameters on the prompt line, or
because it should not be possible to activate them too easily.

:admin

Enter administrative mode. This is identical in operation to the
nnadmin(1M)
program.

:bug

Prepare and send a bug report to the nn-bugs mailing address.

:cd [ directory ]

Change current working directory. If the directory argument is not provided,
nn will prompt for it.

:clear

Clear the screen (without redraw). This may be useful at the
beginning of the init file (possibly guarded by "on program nn"), or
in some macros.

:compile

Recompile the kill file. This is not necessary under normal
operation since nn automatically compiles the file on start-up
if it has changed, but it can be used if you modify the kill file
while nn is suspended.

:coredump

Abort with a core dump. For debugging purposes only.

:definemacro

Define macro number macro as described in the Macro Definition
section below. If macro is omitted, the next free macro number
will be chosen.

:dumptable

Same as the :show command described below.

:help [ subject ]

Provide online help on the specified subject. If you omit the
subject, a list of the available topics will be given.

:load [ file ]

Load the specified file. If the file argument is omitted,
the init file is reloaded.
The sequence part (if present) is ignored.

:localvariable [ value ]

Make the variable local to the current group. Subsequent changes to
the variable will only be effective until the current group is left.
If a value is specified, it will be assigned to the local variable.
To assign a new value to a boolean variable, the values on and
off must be used.

:lockvariable

Lock the specified variable so it cannot be modified.

:man

Call up the online manual. The manual is presented as a normal folder
with the program name in the `From' field and the section title in the
`subject' field. All the normal commands related to a folder works
for the online manual as well, e.g. you can save and print sections of
the manual.

:maparguments

This is the command used for binding commands to the keys. It is
fully described in the Key Mapping section below.

:mkdir [ directory ]

Create the directory (and the directories in its path). It will
prompt for at directory name if the argument is omitted.

:motd

Show the message of the day (maintained by the news
administrator in the file "motd" in the lib directory. This file is
automatically displayed on start-up whenever it changes if the
motd variable is set.

:pwd

Print path name of current working directory on message line.

:q

Has no effect besides redrawing the screen if necessary. If an
extended command (one which is prefixed by a :) produces any output
requirering the screen to be redrawn, the screen will not be redrawn
immediately if the variable delay-redraw is set (useful on
slow terminals). Instead another : prompt is shown to allow you
to enter a new extended command immediately. It is sufficient to hit
return
to redraw the screen, but it has been my experience that entering
q return
in this situation happens quite often, so it was made a no-op.

:q!

Quit nn without updating the .newsrc file.

:Q

Quit nn. This is equivalent to the normal
Q
command.

:rmail

Open your mailbox (see the mail variable) as a folder to
read the incoming messages. This is not a full mail interface
(depending on the nn configuration, you may not be able to delete
messages, add cc: on replies, etc), but it can give
you a quick glance at new mail without leaving nn.

:setvariable [ value ]

Set a boolean variable to true or assign the value to a string or
integer variable. The
:set
command is described in details in the section on VARIABLES.

:sh

Suspend nn, or if that is not possible, spawn an interactive shell.

:show groupsmode

Show the total number or the number of unread articles in the current
group, depending on mode: all (list the number of unread
articles in all groups including groups which you have unsubscribed
to), total (list the total number of articles in all existing
groups), sequence (list unread groups in presentation sequence
order), subscr (list all subscribed
groups), unsub (list unsubscribed groups only). Any other
mode results in a listing of the number of unread articles in
all subscribed groups including those you have suppressed with the `!'
symbol in the group presentation sequence. To get just the currently
unread groups in the presentation sequence, use the `Y'
{overview} command.

:show kill

Show the kill entries that applies to the current group and to all groups.

:show rc [ group ]

Show the .newsrc and select file entries for the current or the
specified group.

:show map [ mode ]

Show the key bindings in the current or specified mode.

:sort [ mode ]

Reorder the articles on the menu according to mode or if omitted
to the default sort-mode. The following sorting modes are
available:
arrival: list articles by local article number which
will be the same as the order in which they
arrived on the system (unless groups are merged),
subject: articles with identical
subjects are grouped and ordered after age of the oldest article in
the group,
lexical: subjects in lexicographical order,
age: articles ordered after posting date only,
sender: articles ordered after sender's name.

:togglevariable

Toggle a boolean variable.

:unread [ group ] [ articles ]

Mark the current (or specified) group as unread. If the
articles argument is omitted, the number of unread articles in
the group will be set to the number of unread articles when nn
was invoked. Otherwise, the argument specifies the number of unread
articles.

CATCH UP

If you have not read news for some time, there are probably more news
than you can cope with. Using the option -a0nn will put
you into catch-up mode.

The first question you will get is whether to catch up interactively
or automatically. If you instruct nn to catch up automatically,
it will simply mark all articles in all groups as read, thus bringing
you completely up-to-date.

If you choose the interactive mode, nn will locate all groups
with unread articles, and for each group it will prompt you for an
action to take on the group. An action is selected using a single
letter followed by return. The following actions are available:

y

Mark all articles as read in current group.

n

Do not update group (this is the default action if you just hit
return).

r

Enter reading mode to read the group.

U

Unsubscribe to the group.

?

Give a list of actions.

q

Quit.
When you quit, nn will ask whether the
rest of the groups should be updated unconditionally or whether they
should remain unread.

VARIABLES AND OPTIONS

It is possible to control the behaviour of nn through the
setting (and unsetting) of the variables described below. There are
several ways of setting variables:
- Through command line options when nn is invoked.
- Through assignments on the command line when nn is invoked.
- Through global set commands in the init file.
- Through set or local commands executed from entry macros.
- Through the :set extended command when you run nn.

Boolean variables control a specific function in nn, e.g.
whether the current time is shown in the prompt line. A boolean
variable is set to
true
with the command

setvariable

and it is set to
false
with either of the following (equivalent) commands:

unsetvariableset novariable

You can also toggle the value of a boolean variable using the command:

togglevariable

For example:

set time
unset time
set notime
toggle time

Integer variables control an amount e.g. the size of the preview
window, or the maximum number of articles to read in each group. They
are set with the following command:

setvariable value

In some cases, not setting an integer value has a special meaning,
for example, not having a minimal preview window or reading all
articles in the groups no matter how many there are. The special
meaning can be re-established by the following command:

unsetvariable

For example:

set window 7
unset limit

String variables may specify directory names, default values for
prompts, etc. They are set using the command

setvariable string

Normally, the string value assigned to the variable
value starts at the first non-blank character after the variable name
and ends with the last non-blank character (excluding comments) on the
line. To include leading or trailing blanks, or the comment start
symbol, #, in the string they must be escaped using a backslash `\',
e.g. to set included-mark to the string " # ", the following
assignment can be used:

set included-mark \ \#\ # blank-#-blank

To include a backslash in the string, it must be duplicated `\\'.
A backslash may also be used to include the following special
characters in the string: \a=alarm, \b=backspace, \e=escape,
\f=form-feed, \n=new-line, \r=return, \t=tab.

Key variables control the keys used to control special functions
during user input such as line editing and completion. They are set
using the command

setvariable key-name

A variable can be locked which makes further modification of the
variable impossible:

lockvariable

This can be used in the setup init file which is loaded
unconditionally to enforce local conventions or restrictions. For
example, to fix the included-mark variable to the string ">",
the following commands can be placed in the setup file:

set included-mark >
lock included-mark

Some variables only make sense when set on the command line, since
they are examined early in startup, before the init files are read.
The syntax for setting variables on the command line is:
variable=value
The value may need to
be quoted if it contains white space or special characters.
They can be intermixed with other options, and are examined prior
to other argument parsing.

The current variable settings can be shown with the
:set
command:

:set (without arguments)

This will give a listing of the variables which have been set in
either the init file or interactively.

:set all

This will give a listing of all variables. Modified variables will be
marked with a `*' and local variables will be marked with a `>'.
A locked variable is marked with a `!'.

:set /regexp

This will give a listing of all variables whose name matches the given
regular expression.

:setpartial-namespace

The space (comp1-key) key will complete the variable name
as usual, but as a side effect it will display the variable's current
value in the message line.

Variables are global by default, but a local instantiation of the
variable can be created using the :local command. The local
variable will overlay the global variable as long as the current group
is active, i.e. the global variable will be used again when you exit
the current group. The initial value of the local variable will be
the same as the global variable, unless a new value is specified in
the :local command:

:localvariable [ value ]

The following variables are available:

also-full-digest(boolean, default false)

When a digest is split, the digest itself is not normally included on
the menu, and as such the initial adminstrative information is not
available. Setting also-full-digest will cause the (unsplit)
digest to be included on the menu. These articles are marked with a @
at the beginning of the subject.

also-subgroups(boolean, default true)

When set, a group name in the presentation sequence will also cause
all the subgroups of the group to be included, for example, comp.unix
will also include comp.unix.questions, etc. When also-subgroups
is not set, subgroups are only included if the group name is followed
by a `.' in which case the main group is not included, i.e.
`comp.unix' is not included when `comp.unix.' is specified in the
presentation sequence, and vice-versa. Following a group name by an
asterisk `*', e.g. comp.unix*, will include the group as well as all
subgroups independently of the setting of also-subgroups.

append-signature-mail(boolean, default false)

When false, it is assumed that the .signature file is automatically
appended to responses sent via E-mail. If true, .signature will be
appended to the letter (see query-signature).

append-signature-post(boolean, default false)

When false, it is assumed that the .signature file is automatically
appended to posted articles. If true, .signature will explicitly be
appended to posted articles (see query-signature).

attributessymbols(string, default ....)

Each element in this string represents a symbol used to represent an
article attribute when displayed on the screen. See the section on
Marking Articles and Attributes.

auto-junk-seen(boolean, default true)

When set, articles which have the seen attribute

(,) will be marked
read when the current group is left. If not set, these articles will
still be either unread or marked seen the next time the group is
entered (see also confirm-junk-seen and retain-seen-status).

auto-preview-mode(boolean, default false)

Enables Auto Preview Mode. In this mode, selecting an article
on the menu using its article id (letter a-z) will enter preview mode
on that article immediately. Furthermore, the `n' {next-article}
command will preview the next article on the menu only if it has the
same subject as the current article; otherwise, it will return to the
menu with the cursor placed on the next article. The continue
command at the end of the article and the `=' {goto-menu}
returns to the menu immediately as usual.

auto-read-mode-limitN(integer, default 0)

When operating in auto reading mode, nn willauto-select all unread articles in the group, skip the
article selection phase, and enter reading mode directly after
entry to the group.
Auto reading mode is disabled when auto-read-mode-limit is
zero; it is activated unconditionally if the value is negative, and
conditionally if the value is greater than zero and the number of
unread articles in the current group does not exceed the given value.

auto-select-closedmode(integer, default 1)

Normally, selecting a closed subject (usually in consolidated
menu mode) will select (or deselect) all unread articles with
the given subject (or all articles if they are all read). This
behaviour can be changed via the value of this variable as follows:

0: select only the first article with the subject (shown on menu).
1: select only the unread articles with the subject.
2: select all available articles with the subject.

auto-select-rw(boolean, default false)

If set, a subject of an article read or posted is automatically
used for subsequent auto-selecting (if not already selected).
This is the most efficient way to see your own posts automatically.

auto-select-subject(boolean, default false)

When set, selecting an article from the menu using the article id
(a-z), all articles on the menu with the same subject will
automatically be selected as well.

backup(boolean, default true)

When set, a copy of the initial .newsrc and select files will save be
the first time they are changed. nn remembers the initial
contents of these files internally, so the backup variable can be set
any time if not set on start-up.

backup-folder-pathfile(string, default "BackupFolder~")

When removing deleted articles from a folder, this variable defines
the name of the file where a (temporary) copy of the original folder
is saved. If the file name doesn't contain a `/', the file will
be located in the .nn directory. Otherwise the file name is used
directly as the relative or full path name of the backup file.
If possible, the old folder will be renamed to the backup folder name;
otherwise the old folder is copied to the backup folder.

backup-suffixsuffix(string, default ".bak")

The suffix appended to file names to make the corresponding backup
file name (see backup).

The mail address to which bug reports created with the :bug
command are sent.

case-fold-search(boolean, default true)

When set, string and regular expression matching will be case
independent. This is related to all commands matching on names or
subjects, except in connection with auto-kill and auto-select where
the individual kill file entries specifies this property.

charsetcharset(string, default "us-ascii")

The character set in use on your terminal. Legal values are "us-ascii",
"iso-8859-X", where X is a nonzero digit, and "unknown".
Setting this variable also sets the data-bits variable to the default
bit width of the character set (7 for "us-ascii" and "unknown", 8 for the
"iso-8859-X" sets).

The value of this variable also determines wether nn allows
8-bit characters in the body of articles being posted and letters
being mailed (unless the value is "unknown", in which case this is
determined by the value of the data-bits variable).
If necessary, nn will add extra headers to the
message indicating its the character set.

check-group-access(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will perform a check on the readability of a
group's readability before showing the menu for that group. Normally,
this is not necessary since all users traditionally have access to all
news groups. Setting (and locking) this variable may be used to limit
access to a news group via the permissions and ownership of the
group's spool directory (this will only work for non-NNTP sites).

collapse-subjectoffset(integer, default 25)

When set (non-negative), subject lines which are too long to be
presented in full on the menus will be "collapsed" by removing a
sufficient number of characters from the subject starting at the given
offset in the subject. This is useful in source groups where
the "Part (01/10)" string sometimes disappears from the menu. When
not set (or negative), the subjects are truncated.

columnscol(integer, default screen width)

This variable contains the screen width i.e. character positions per
line.

comp1-keykey(key, default space)

The key which gives the first/next completion, and the default value
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.

comp2-keykey(key, default tab)

The key which ends the current completion and gives the first
completion for the next component
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.

compress(boolean, default false)

This variable controls whether text compression (see thecompress command) is turned on or off when an article is
shown. The compression is still toggled for the current article with
the compress command key.

confirm-append(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will ask for confirmation before appending an
article to an existing file (see also confirm-create).

confirm-auto-quit(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will ask for confirmation before quitting after
having read the last group. If not confirmed, nn will recycle
the presentation sequence looking for groups that were skipped with
the `N' {next-group} command. But it will not look for new
articles arrived since the invocation of nn.

confirm-create(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will ask for confirmation before creating a new
file or directory when saving or unpacking an article (see also
confirm-append).

confirm-entry(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will ask for confirmation before entering a group
with more than confirm-entry-limit unread articles (on the first
menu level). It is useful on slow terminals if you don't want to wait
until nn has drawn the first menu to be able to skip the group.
Answering no to the "Enter?" prompt will cause nn to skip to
the next group without marking the current group as read. If you
answer by hitting interrupt, nn will ask the question
"Mark as read?" which allows you to mark the current group as read
before going to the next group. If this second question is also
answered by hitting interrupt, nn will quit immediately.

confirm-entry-limitarticles(integer, default 0)

Specifies the minimum number of unread articles in a group for which
the confirm-entry functionality is activated.

confirm-junk-seen(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will require confirmation before marking seen
articles as read when auto-junk-seen is set.

confirm-messages(boolean, default false)

In some cases, nn will sleep one second (or more) when it has shown a
message to the user, e.g. in connection with macro debugging. Setting
confirm-messages
will cause nn to
wait for you to confirm all messages by hitting any
key. (It will show the symbol <> to indicate that it is awaiting
confirmation.)

consolidated-manual(boolean, default false)

When set, the online manual will be presented with one
menu line for each program in the nn package.

consolidated-menu(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will automatically close all multi-article
subjects on entry to a group, so that each subject only occur once on
the menu page.

counter-delim-left(string, default "[")

The delimiter string output to the left of the article counter in a
closed subject's menu line.

counter-delim-right(string, default "] ")

The delimiter string output to the right of the article counter in a
closed subject's menu line.

counter-paddingpad(integer, default 5)

On a consolidated menu, the subjects may not be very well aligned
because the added [...] counters have varying length. To (partially)
remedy this, all counters (and subjects without counters) are prefixed
by up to pad spaces to get better alignment. Increasing it
further may yield practially perfect alignment at the cost of less
space for the subject itself.

cross-filter-seq(boolean, default true)

When set, cross posted articles will be presented in the first
possible group, i.e. according to the current presentation sequence
(cross-post filtering on sequence). The article is
automatically marked read in the other cross posted groups unless you
unsubscribe to the first group in which it was shown before reading
the other groups. Likewise, it is sufficient to leave the article
unread in the first group to keep it for later handling.
If not set, cross-postings are shown in the first group occurring on
the Newsgroups: line which the user subscribes to (i.e. you let the
poster decide which group is most appropriate to read his posting).

cross-post(boolean, default false)

Normally, nn will only show cross-posted articles in the first
subscribed group on the Newsgroups: line. When
cross-post
is set, nn will show cross-posted articles in all subscribed
groups to which they are posted.

cross-post-limitN (integer, default 0)

If this variable is set to a value other than 0, then any articles
posted to more than N newsgroups are automatically skipped.
A value of 5 is pretty good for discarding ``spam'' articles.

data-bitsbits(integer, default 7)

When set to 7, nn will display characters with the 8th bit set
using a meta-notation M-7bit-char. If set to 8, these
characters are sent directly to the screen (unless monitor is
set). Setting the charset variable also sets this variable to the
default bit width of character set.

It also controls whether keyboard input is 7 or 8 bits, and thus
whether key maps contain 127 or 255 entries. See the key mapping
section for more details.

If the charset has value "unknown", the value of data-bits
also determines wether nn allows 8-bit characters in the body of
articles being posted and letters being mailed (this is normally
determined directly by the charset variable).

date(boolean, default true)

If set nn will show the article posting date when articles are
read.

debugmask(integer, default 0)

Look in the source if you are going to use this.

decode-header-filefile(string, default "Decode.Headers")

The name of the file in which the header and initial text of articles
decoded with the :decode command is saved. Unless the file name
starts with a `/', the file will be created in the same directory as
the decoded files. The information is not saved if this variable is
not set.

decode-skip-prefixN(integer, default 2)

When non-null, the :decode command will automatically skipuptoN characters at the beginning of each line to find
valid uuencoded data. This allows nn to automatically decode
(multi-part) postings which are both uuencoded and packed with shar.

default-distributiondistr(string, default "world")

The distribution to use as the default suggestion when posting
articles using the follow and post commands if the
corresponding follow-distribution or post-distribution
variable contains the default option.

default-kill-select[1]days(number, default 30)

Specifies the default action for the K {kill-select}
command if the first prompt is answered by return. It contains
the number of days to keep the kill or select entry in the kill file
(1-99 days). If it has the value days+100 (e.g. 130), it
denotes that the default action is to select rather than kill on
the subject for the specified period.

default-save-filefile(string, default +$F)

The default save file used when saving articles in news groups where
no save file has been specified in the init file (either in a
save-files section or in the presentation sequence).
It can also be specified using the abbreviation "+" as the file name
when prompted for a file name even in groups with their own save file.

delay-redraw(boolean, default false)

Normally, nn will redraw the screen after extended
commands (:cmd) that clear the screen. When delay-redraw is set
nn will prompt for another extended command instead of redrawing
the screen (hit return to redraw).

echo-prefix-key(boolean, default true)

When true, hitting a prefix key (see the section on key mapping below)
will cause the prefix key to be echoed in the message line to indicate
that another key is expected.

edit-patch-command(boolean, default true)

When true, the :patch command will show the currentpatch-command and give you a chance to edit it before applying
it to the articles.

edit-print-command(boolean, default true)

When true, the print command will show the current printer
command and give you a chance to edit it before printing the articles.
Otherwise the articles are just printed using the current printer
command.

edit-response-check(boolean, default true)

When editing a response to an article, it normally does not have any
meaning to send the initial file prepared by nn unaltered, since
it is either empty or only contains included material. When this
variable is set, exiting the editor without having changed the file
will automatically abort the response action without confirmation.

edit-unshar-command(boolean, default false)

When true, the :unshar command will show the currentunshar-command and give you a chance to edit it before applying
it to the articles.

editorcommand(string, default not set)

When set, it will override the current EDITOR environment variable
when editing responses and new articles.

embedded-header-escapestring(string, default '~')

When saving an article to a file, header lines embedded in the body of
the article are escaped using this string to make it possible for
nn to split the folder correctly afterwards.
Header lines are not escaped if this variable is not set.

enter-last-read-modemode(integer, default 1)

Normally, nn will remember which group is active when you quit,
and offer to jump directly to this group when you start nn the
next time. This variable is used to control this behaviour. The
following mode values are recognized:

0: Ignore the remembered group (r.g.).
1: Enter r.g. if the group is unread (with user confirmation)
2: Enter r.g. or first unread group after it in the sequence (w/conf).
3: Enter r.g. if the group is unread (no confirmation)
4: Enter r.g. or first unread group after it in the sequence (no conf).

entry-report-limitarticles(integer, default 300)

Normally, nn will just move the cursor to the upper left corner
of the screen while it is reading articles from the database on
entry to a group. For large groups this may take more than a fraction
of a second, and nn can then report what it is doing. If
it must read more articles than the number specified by this variable,
nn will report which group and how many articles it is reading.

erase-keykey(key, default tty erase key)

The key which erases the last input character
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.

expert(boolean, default false)

If set nn will use slightly shorter prompts (e.g. not tell you
that ? will give you help), and be a bit less verbose in a few other
cases (e.g. not remind you that posted articles are not available
instantly).

expired-message-delaypause(integer, default 1)

If a selected article is found to have been expired, nn will
normally give a message about this and sleep for a number of seconds
specified by this variable. Setting this variable to zero will still
make nn give the message without sleeping afterwards. Setting
it to -1 will cause the message not to be shown at all.

flow-control(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will turn on xon/xoff flow-control before writing
large amounts of text to the screen. This should guard against
lossage of output, but in some network configurations it has had the
opposite effect, losing several lines of the output. This variable
is always true on systems with CBREAK capabilities which can do single
character reads without disabling flow control.

flush-typeahead(boolean, default false)

When true, nn will flush typeahead prior to reading commands
from the keyboard. It will not flush typeahead while reading
parameters for a command, e.g. file names etc.

folderdirectory(string, default ~/News)

The full pathname of thefolder directory
which will replace the + in folder names. It will be initialized from
the FOLDER environment variable if it is not set in the
init
file.

folder-format-check(boolean, default true)

When saving an article with a full or partial header in an existing
folder, nn will check the format of the folder to be able to
append the article in the proper format. If this variable is not set,
folders are assumed to be in the format specified via the
mmdf-format and mail-format variables, and articles are
saved in that format without checking. Otherwise, the *-format
variables are only used to determine the format for new folders.

folder-save-filefile(string, default not set)

The default save file used when saving articles from a folder.

follow-distributionwords(string, default see below)

This variable controls how the Distribution: header is constructed for
a follow-up to an original article. Its value is a list of
words selected from the following list:

[ [ always ] same ] [ ask ]
[ default | distribution ]

This is interpreted in two steps:
- First the default distribution is determined. If same is
specified and the original article has a Distribution: header, that
header is used. Else if default is specified (or
distribution is omitted), the value of
default-distribution is used. And finally, if only a
distribution (any word) is specified that is used as the default.
- Then if ask is specified, the user will be asked to confirm
the default distribution or provide another distribution. However, if
always (and same) is specified, and the default was taken
from the original article's distribution, the original distribution is
used without confirmation.
The default value of follow-distribution is alwayssamedefault, i.e. use either the original distribution or
the default-distribution without confirmation in either case.

from-line-parsingstrictness(integer, default 2)

Specifies how strict nn must parse a "From " line in a folder to
recognize it as a mail format message separator line. The following
strictness values determine whether a line starting with "From " will
be recognized as a separator line:

0: Always.
1: Line must have at least 8 fields.
2: Line must contain a valid date and time (ctime style).

fsort(boolean, default true)

When set, folders are sorted alphabetically according to the subject
(and age).
Otherwise, the articles in
a folder will be presented in the sequence in which they were saved.

guard-double-slash(boolean, default false)

Normally, when entering a file name, entering two slashes `//' in a
row (or following a slash by a plus `/+') will cause nn to
erase the entire line and replace it with the `/' (or `+'). On some
systems, two slashes are used in network file names, and on those
systems guard-double-slash can be set; that will cause nn
to require three slashes in a row to clear the input.

header-lineslist(string, no default)

When set, it determines the list of header fields that are shown when
an article is read instead of the normal one line header showing the
author and subject. See the full description in the section on
Customized Article Headers below.

help-keykey(key, default ?)

The key which ends the current completion and gives a list of possible
completions for the next component
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.

ignore-re(boolean, default false)

If set, articles with subjects already seen in a previous
invocation of nn or another newsreader - and not auto-selected -
are automatically killed. A great way to read even less news!

ignore-xon-xoff(boolean, default false)

Normally, nn will ignore ^S and ^Q in the input from the
terminal (if they are not handled in the tty driver). Setting this
variable will treat these characters as normal input.

include-art-id(boolean, default false)

The first line in a response with included material normally reads
"...somebody... writes:" without a reference to the specific article
from which the quotation was taken (this is found in the References:
line). When this variable is set, the line will also include the
article id of the referenced article: "In ...article... ... writes:".

include-full-header(boolean, default false)

When set, the mail (M) command will always include the full
header of the original article. If it is not set, it only includes
the header when the article is forwarded without being edited.

include-mark-blank-lines(boolean, default false)

When set, the included-mark is placed on blank lines in included
articles. Otherwise, blank lines are left blank (to make it easy to
delete whole paragraphs with `d}' in vi and `C-@ M-] C-W' in emacs).

included-markstring(string, default ">")

This string is prefixed to all lines in the original article that are
included in a reply or a follow-up. (Now you have the possibility to
change it, but please don't. Lines with a mixture of prefixes like

: orig-> <> } ] #- etc.
are very difficult to comprehend. Let's all use the standard folks!
(And hack inews if it is the 50% rule that bothers you.)

inewsshell-command(string, default "INEWS_PATH -h")

The program which is invoked by nn to deliver an article to the
news transport. The program will be given a complete article
including a header containing the newsgroups to which the article is
to be posted. See also inews-pipe-input. It is not used
when cancelling an article!

inews-pipe-input(boolean, default true)

When set, the article to be posted will be piped into the inews
program. Otherwise, the file containing the article will be given as
the first (and only) argument to the inews command.

initial-newsrc-filefile(string, default '.defaultnewsrc')

Defines the name of a file which is used as the initial .newsrc file
for new users. The name may be a full path name, or as the default a
file name which will be looked for in a number of places:
in the standard news lib directory (where it can be shared with other
news readers),
in nn's lib directory,
and in the database directory.
Groups which are not present in the initial .newsrc file will be
automatically unsubscribed provided new-group-action is set to a
value allowing unsubscribed groups to be omitted from .newsrc.

keep-backup-folder(boolean, default false)

When set, the backup folder (see backup-folder-path) created
when removing deleted articles from a folder is not removed.
Notice that a backup folder is not created if all articles are removed
from a folder!

keep-unsubscribed(boolean, default true)

When set, unsubscribed groups are kept in .newsrc. If not set,nn will automatically remove all unsubscribed from .newsrc if
tidy-newsrc is set. See also unsubscribe-mark-read.

kill(boolean, default true)

If set, nn performs automatic kill and selection based on thekill
file.

kill-debug(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will display a trace of the auto-kill/select
process on entry to a group.
It is automatically turned off if `q' is entered as the answer to a
"hit any key" prompt during the debug output.

kill-keykey(key, default tty kill key)

The key which deletes the current line
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. a file name.

kill-reference-countN(integer, default 0)

When this variable is non-zero, all articles which have N or
more references on the References: line (corresponding to the number
of >>'s on the menu line) will be auto-killed if they are not
auto-selected (or preserved) via an entry in the kill file. It should
probably not be used globally for all groups, but can be set on a
per-group via the entry macros.

layoutnumber(integer, default 1)

Set the menu layout. The argument must be a number between 0 and 4.

limitmax-articles(integer, default infinite)

Limit
the maximum number of articles presented in each group tomax-articles.
The default is to present
all
unread articles no matter how many there are. Setting this variable,
only the most recent
max-articles
articles will be presented, but all the articles will still be marked
as read. This is useful to get up-to-date quickly if you have not
read news for a longer period.

lineslin(integer, default screen height)

This variable contains the screen height i.e. number of lines.

long-menu(boolean, default false)

If set nn will not put an empty line after the header line and
an empty line before the prompt line; this gives you two extra menu
lines.

macro-debug(boolean, default false)

If set nn will trace the execution of all macros. Prior to the
execution of each command or operation in a macro, it will show the
name of the command or the input string or key stroke at the bottom of
the screen.

mailfile(string, default not set)

file must be a full path name of a file. If defined, nn will
check for arrival of new mail every minute or so by looking at the
specified file.

mail-alias-expanderprogram(string, default not set)

When set, aliases used in mail responses may be expanded by the
specified program. The program will be given the completed
response in a file as its only argument, and the aliases should be
expanded directly in this file (of course the program may use
temporary files and other means to expand the aliases as long the the
result is stored in the provided file).
Notice: currently there are no alias expanders delivered with nn.
Warning: Errors in the expansion process may lead to the response
not being sent.

mail-format(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will save articles in a format that is compatible
with normal mail folders.
Unless folder-format-check is false, it is only used to specify
the format used when new folders are created.
This variable is ignored if mmdf-format is set.

mail-headerheaders(string, default not set)

The headers string specifies one or more extra header lines
(separated by semi-colons `;') which are added to the header of mail
sent from nn using the reply and mail commands. For
example:

To include a semicolon `;' in a header, precede it by a backslash (which
must be doubled because of the conventions for entering strings).

mail-recordfile(string, default not set)

file must be a full path name of a file. If defined, all replies and
mail will be saved in this file in standard
mailbox
format, i.e. you can use you favourite mailer (and nn) to look at
the file.

mail-scriptfile(string, default not set)

When set, nn will use the specified file instead of the standardaux script when executing the reply and mail
commands.

mailershell-command(string, default REC_MAIL)

The program which is invoked by nn to deliver a message to the
mail transport. The program will be given a complete mail message
including a header containing the recipient's address. See also
mailer-pipe-input.

mailer-pipe-input(boolean, default true)

When set, the message to be sent will be piped into the mailer
program. Otherwise, the file containing the message will be given as
the first (and only) argument to the mailer command.

marked-by-next-groupN(integer, default 0)

Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu markedseen by the N {next-group} command in selection
mode. See marked-by-read-skip for possible values of N.

marked-by-read-returnN(integer, default 0)

Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu markedseen by the Z {read-return} command in selection
mode. See marked-by-read-skip for possible values of N.

marked-by-read-skipN(integer, default 4)

Specifies the amount of (unmarked) articles on the menu markedseen by the X {read-skip} command in selection mode.
The following values of N are recognized:

0: No articles are marked seen
1: Current page is marked seen
2: Previous pages are marked seen
3: Previous and current pages are marked seen
4: All pages are marked seen

mark-overlap(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will draw a line (using the underline capabilities
of the terminal if possible) to indicate the end of the overlap (see the
overlap variable).

mark-overlap-shading(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will shade overlapping lines (see theoverlap variable) using the attributes defined by the
shading-on and shading-off variables (of if not set, with
the underline attribute). This is typically used to give overlapping
lines a different colour on terminals which have this capability.

menu-spacingmode(integer, default 0)

When mode is a non-zero number as described below, nn will
add blank lines between the lines on the menu to increase readability
at the cost of presenting fewer articles on each page. The following
values of mode are recognized:

0: Don't add blank lines between menu lines.
1: Add a blank line between articles with different subjects.
2: Add a blank line between all articles.

merge-report-raterate(integer, default 1)

When nn is invoked with the -m option (directly or vianngrap), a status report of the merging process is displayed and
updated on the screen every rate seconds. The report contains
the time used so far and an estimate of the time needed to complete
the merge.

message-historyN(integer, default 15)

Specifies the maximum number, N, of older messages which can be
recalled with the ^P {message} command.

min-windowsize(integer, default 7)

When the window variable is not set, nn will clear the
screen to preview an article if there are less than size unused
lines at the bottom of the menu screen.

mmdf-format(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will save articles in MMDF format.
Unless folder-format-check is false, it is only used to specify
the format used when new folders are created.

monitor(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will showall
characters in the received messages using a "cat -v" like format.
Otherwise, only the printable characters are shown (default).

motd(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will display the message of the day on
start-up if it has changed since it was last shown. The message is
taken from the file "motd" in the lib directory. It can also be shown
(again) using the :motd command.

multi-key-guard-timetimeout(integer, default 2)

When reading a multi-key sequence from the keyboard, nn will
expect the characters constituting the multi-key to arrive "quickly"
after each other. When a partial multi-key sequence is read,
nn will wait (at least) timeout tenths of a second for
each of the following characters to arrive to complete the multi-key
sequence. If the multi-key sequence is not completed within
this period, nn will read the partial multi-key sequence as
individual characters instead. This way it is still possible to use
for example the ESC key on a terminal with vt100 like arrow keys.
When nn is used via an rlogin connection, you may have to
increase the timeout to get reliable recognition of multi-keys.

new-group-actionaction(integer, default 3)

This variable controls how new groups are treated by nn. It is
an integer variable, and the following values can be used. Some of
these actions (marked with an *) will only work when
keep-unsubscribed is set, since the presence of a group in
.newsrc is the only way to recognize it as an old group:

0) Ignore groups which are not in .newsrc. This will obviously
include new groups, and therefore you must explictly add any new
groups that you care about (by editting the .newsrc file, or
using the G menu command and then subscribing to the group).
When NNTP is being used, this setting prevents the active.times
data from being read from the server; this can be helpful
when using a slow link, since the data can often be hundreds of KBytes
long.

1*) Groups not in .newsrc are considered to be new, and are
inserted at the beginning of the .newsrc file.

2*) Groups not in .newsrc are considered to be new, and are
appended to the end of the .newsrc file.

3) New groups are recognized via a time-stamp saved in the
file .nn/LAST and in the database, i.e. it is not dependent on the
groups currently in .newsrc. The new groups are automatically
appended to .newsrc with subscription. Old groups not present in
.newsrc will be considered to be unsubscribed.

4) As 3, but the user is asked to confirm that the new
group should be appended to .newsrc. If rejected, the group will not
be appended to .newsrc, and thus be regarded as unsubscribed.

5) As 4, except that the information is stored in a
format compatible with the rn news reader (.rnlast). This needs
to be tested!

new-style-read-prompt(boolean, default true)

When set, the reading mode prompt line includes the group name and the
number of selected articles in the group.

news-headerheaders(string, default not set)

The headers string specifies one or more extra header lines
(separated by semi-colons `;') which are added to the header of
articles posted from nn using the follow and post
commands. See mail-header for an example.

news-recordfile(string, default not set)

Save file for follow-ups and postings. Same rules and format as themail-record variable.

news-scriptfile(string, default not set)

When set, nn will use the specified file instead of the standardaux script when executing the follow and post
commands.

newsrcfile (string, default "~/.newsrc") Specifies the

file used by nn to register which groups and articles have been
read. The default setting corresponds to the .newsrc file used by
other news readers. Notice that nn release 6.4 onwards
does allow individual articles to be marked unread, and some
articles marked unread, and thus no longer messes up .newsrc for
other news readers! Also see nntp-server.

nn-directorydirectory(string, default "~/.nn")

It only makes sense to set this variable on the command line,
e.g. "nn-directory=$HOME/.nn2"
since it is looked at before the init file is read. It must be
set to a full pathname. Usually set when using multiple servers;
see newsrc above and nntp-server below.

nntp-cache-dirdirectory(string, default "~/.nn")

When NNTP is used, nn needs to store articles temporarily on
disk. This variable specifies which directory nn will use to
hold these files. The default value may be changed during
configuration. This variable can only be set in the init file.

nntp-cache-sizesize(integer, default 10, maximum 10)

Specifies the number of temporary files in the nntp cache. The
default and maximum values may be changed during configuration.

nntp-debug(boolean, default false)

When set, a trace of the nntp related traffic is displayed in the
message line on the screen.

nntp-serverhostname or filename (string)

It only makes sense to set this variable on the command line,
e.g. "nntp-server=news.some.domain",
since it is looked at before the init file,
If you use multiple servers, you probably want to set the
nn-directory and newsrc variables on the command line to
alternate names as well, since some of the data files are server dependent.

old [max-articles](integer, default not set)

Whenold
is set, nn will present (or scan) all (or the last
max-articles) unread as well as
read articles. While
old
is set, nn will
never
mark any unread articles as read.

old-packname(boolean, default false)

When set, nn display names identically to nn-6.6.5 (and earlier). Only set
this if you have a large number of entries in your killfile that no longer
work due to the new behaviour. Note that in the long run, this option will
go away, so it's best to update your killfile rather than set this.

orig-to-include-maskN(integer, default 3)

When replying to an article, nn will include some of the header
lines which may be used to construct a proper mail address for the
poster of the original article. These addresses are placed on
Orig-To: lines in the reply header and will automatically be
removed before the letter is sent. This variable specifies which
headers from the article are included; its value N is the sum of
the following values:

1: Reply-To:
2: From:
4: Path:

overlaplines(integer, default 2)

Specifies the number of overlapping lines from one page to the next
when paging through an article in reading mode.
The last line from the previous page
will be underlined if the terminal has that capability.

pagershell-command(string, default $PAGER)

This is the pager used by the :admin command (and nnadmin)
when it executes certain commands, e.g. grepping in the Log file.

patch-commandshell-command(string, default "patch -p0")

This is the command which is invoked by the :patch command.

post-distributionwords(string, default see below)

This variable controls how the Distribution: header is constructed
when posting an original article. Its value is a list of
words selected from the following list:

[ ask ] [ default | distribution ]

This is interpreted in two steps:
- First the default distribution is determined. If default is
specified (or distribution is omitted), the value of
default-distribution is used. Otherwise, the specified
distribution (any word) is used as the default.
- Then if ask is specified, the user will be asked to confirm
the default distribution or provide another distribution.
The default value of post-distribution is askdefault, i.e. use the default-distribution with
confirmation from the user.

preview-continuationcond(integer, default 12)

This variable determines on what terms the following article should be
automatically shown when previewing an article, and the
next-article command is used, or continue is used at the
end of the article. The following values
can be used:
0 - never show the next article (return to the menu).
1 - always show the next article (use 'q' to return to the menu).
2 - show the next article if it has the same subject as the
current article, else return to the menu.
The value should be the sum of two values: one for the action
after using continue on the last page of the article, and one
for the action performed when the next-article command is used
multiplied by 10.

preview-mark-read(boolean, default true)

When set, previewing an article will mark the article as read.

previous-also-read(boolean, default true)

When set, going back to the previously read group with P
{previous} will include articles read in the current invocation
of nn even if there are still unread articles in the group.

print-header-linesfields(string, default "FDGS")

Specifies the list of header fields that are output when
an article is printed via the :print command and
print-header-type is 1 (short header). The fields
specification is desctribed
in the section on Customized Article Headers below.

print-header-typeN(integer, default 1)

Specifies what kind of header is printed by the :print command,
corresponding to the three save-* commands: 0 prints only
the article body (no header), 1 prints a short header,
and 2 prints the full article header.

printershell-command(string, default is system dep.)

This is the default value for theprint
command. It should include an option which prevents the spooler from
echoing a job-id or similar to the terminal to avoid problems with
screen handling (e.g. lp -s on System V).

query-signature(boolean, default ...)

Will cause nn to require confirmation before appending
the .signature file to out-going mail or news if the corresponding
append-sig-... variable is set.

quick-count(boolean, default true)

When set, calculating the total number of unread articles at start-up
is done by simple subtracting the first unread article number from the
total number of articles in each group. This is very fast, and fairly
accurate but it may be a bit too large. If not set, each line in
.newsrc will be interpreted to count every unread article, thus giving
a very accurate number. This variable is also used by nncheck.

quick-save(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will not prompt for a file name when an article is
saved (unless it belongs to a folder).
Instead it uses the save file specified for the current group in the
init file or the default save file.

re-layoutN(integer, default 0)

Normally on the menu, nn will prefix the subject a number of
`>'s corresponding to the number of references on the References:
line. The re-layout variable may be set to use a different
prefix on the subjects:

0: One `>' per reference is shown (default).
1: A single `>' is shown if the Subject contains Re:.
2: The number of references is shown as `n>'
3: A single Re: is shown.
4: If any references use layout 0, else layout 1.

re-layout-readN(integer, default -1)

When the header-lines variable is not set, or contains the "*"
field specifier, a line similar to the menu line will be used as the
header of the article in reading mode, including the sender's name and
the article's subject. When this variable is negative, the subject
on this header line will be prefixed according to the re-layout
variable. Otherwise, it will define the format of the "Re:" prefix to
be used instead of the re-layout used on the menu.

read-return-next-page(boolean, default false)

When set, the Z {read-return} command will return to thenext menu page rather than the current menu page.

recordfile(string, no default)

Setting thispseudo
variable will set both the mail-record and the
news-record variables to the specified pathname.

When set, invoking nn with the -g option will always
repeat the query for a group to enter until you quit explicitly.
(Same as setting the -r option permanently).

report-cost(boolean, default true)

This variable is ignored unless nn is running with accounting
enabled (see nnacct). When set, nn will report the cost
of the current session and the total on exit.

response-check-pausepause(integer, default 2)

Specifies the number of seconds to wait after posting an article to
see whether the action *might* have failed. Some commands run in the
background and may thus not have completed during this period, so even
when nn says "Article posted", it may still fail (in which case
you are informed via mail).

response-default-answeraction(string, default "send")

The default action to be taken when hitting return to the
"response action" prompt (abort, edit, send, view, write). If it is
unset, no default action is defined.

retain-seen-status(boolean, default false)

Normally, seen articles will just be unread the next time the group is
entered (unless they were marked read by auto-junk-seen). If
retain-seen-status is set, the seen attribute on the articles
will survive to the next time the group is entered. (This is not
recommended because it may result in very large select files).

retry-on-errortimes(integer, default 0)

When set, nn will try the specified number of times to
open an article before reporting that the article does not exist
any more. This may be necessary in some network environments.

save-closed-modemode(integer, default 13)

When saving an article in selection mode (i.e. by selecting it from
the menu), nn will simply save the specified article if the
article's subject is open. When the selected menu entry is a
closed subject, the save-closed-mode variable determines how
many articles among the closed articles should be saved:

If `10' is added to the above values, nn will not save the
selected subject immediately; instead it will ask which articles
to save using the above value as the default answer.

save-counterformat(string, default "%d")

This is the printf-format which nn uses to create substitution
string for the trailing * in save file names. You can set this to
more complex formats if you like, but be sure that it will produce
different strings for different numbers. An alternative format which
seems to be popular is ".%02d" .

save-counter-offsetN(integer, default 0)

Normally, file names created with the part.* form will
substitute the * with successive numbers starting from one.
Setting this variable will cause these numbers to start from N+1.

save-header-linesfields(string, default "FDNS")

Specifies the list of header fields that are saved when
an article is saved via the O {save-short} command.
The fields specification is desctribed
in the section on Customized Article Headers below.

save-report(boolean, default true)

When set, a message reporting the number of lines written is shown
after saving an article. Since messages are shown for a few seconds,
this may slow down the saving of many articles (e.g. using the
S*
command).

scroll-clear-page(boolean, default true)

Determines whether nn clears the screen before showing each new
page of an article.

scroll-last-linesN(integer, default 0)

Normally, nn will show each new page of an article from the top
of the screen (with proper marking of the overlap). When this
variable is set to a negative value, nn will scroll the text of
the new pages from the bottom of the screen instead. If it is set to a
positive value, nn will show pages from the top as usual, but
switch to scrolling when there are less than the specified
number of lines left in the article.

select-leave-next(boolean, default false)

When set, you will be asked whether to select articles with theleave-next attribute on entry to a group with left over
articles.

select-on-sender(boolean, default false)

Specifies whether the find (=) command in article selection mode
will match on the subject or the sender.

shading-oncode...(control string, default not set)

Specifies the escape code to be sent to the terminal to cause
"shading" of the following output to the screen. This is used if the
mark-overlap-shading is set, and by the `+' attribute in the
header-lines variable.

shading-offcode...(control string, default not set)

Specifies the escape code to be sent to the terminal to turn off the
shading defined by shading-on. Shading will typically
be done by changing the foreground colour to change, e.g.

When set (in the init file), nn will not allow the user to
invoke the shell in any way, including saving on pipes. It also
prevents the user from changing certain variables containing commands.

show-purpose-modeN(integer, default 1)

Normally, nn will show the purpose of a group the first time it
is read, provided a purpose is known. Setting this variable, this
behaviour can be changed as follows:

0: Never show the purpose.
1: Show the purpose for new groups only.
2: Show the purpose for all groups.

When NNTP is being used, a setting of 0 prevents the newsgroups
purpose data from being read from the server; this can be helpful
when using a slow link, since the data can often be hundreds of KBytes
long.

sign-type(string, default pgp)

What program nn will use to sign messages via the Sign command. Onlypgp and gpg are currently valid.

silent(boolean, default false)

When set, nn won't print the logo or "No News" if there are no
unread articles. Only useful to set in the init file or with the
-Q
option.

slow-mode(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will cut down on the screen output to give better
response time at low speed.
Normally, nn will use standout mode (if possible) to mark
selected articles on the menu, but when slow-mode is set, nn will
just put an asterisk `*' next to the article identifier on selected
articles. Also when slow-mode is set nn will avoid
redrawing the screen in the following cases: After a goto-group
command an empty menu is shown (hit space to make it appear),
and after responding to an article, only the prompt line is shown (use
^L to redraw the screen). To avoid redrawing the screen after an
extended command, set the delay-redraw variable as well.

slow-speedspeed(integer, default 1200)

If the terminal is running at this baud rate or lower, the on
slow (see the section on init files) condition will be true, and
the on fast will be false (and vice-versa).

sort(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will sort articles according to the currentsort-mode on entry to a group. Otherwise, articles will be
presented in order of arrival.
If not set on entry to a menu for merged groups, the articles from
each group will be kept together on the menu. If sort is unset
while merged groups are presented on the menu, the articles will be
reordered by local article number (which may not keep articles from
the same group together).

sort-modemode(integer, default 1)

The default sort algorithm used to sort the articles on entry to a
news group. It is a numeric value corresponding to one of the sorting
methods described in connection with the :sort command:

When set, responses can be checked for spelling mistakes via the
(i)spell action. The command to perform the spelling is given the
file containing the full article including header as its only
argument. If the spell checker can fix spelling mistakes, it must
apply the changes directly to this file.

split(boolean, default true)

When set, digests will automatically and silently be split into
sub-articles which are then handled transparently as normal articles.
Otherwise, digests are presented as one article (which you can split
on demand with the
G
command).

stoplines(integer, default not set)

Whenstop
is set, nn will only show the first lines lines of the
of each article
before prompting you to continue. This is useful on slow terminals and
modem lines to be able to see the first few lines of longer articles
(and skipping the rest with the
n
command).

subject-match-limitlength(integer, default 256)

Subjects will be considered identical if their first length
characters match. Setting this uncritically to a low value may
cause unexpected results!

subject-match-offsetoffset(integer, default 0)

When set to a positive number, that many characters at the beginning
of the subject will be ignored when comparing subjects for ordering
and equality purposes.

subject-match-parts(boolean, default false)

When set, two subjects will be considered equal if they are identical
up to the first (differing) digit. Together with the
subject-match-offset variable, this can be used in source groups
where the subject often has a format like:

vXXXXXX: Name of the package (Part 01/04)

Setting subject-match-offset to 8 and subject-match-parts
to true will make nn consider all four parts of the package
having the same subject (and thus be selectable with `*').

Notice that changing the subject-match-... variables manually
will not have an immediate effect. To reorder the menu, an explicit
:sort command must be performed. These variables are mainly
intended to be set using the :local command in on entry
macros for source and binary groups (entry macros are evaluated before
the menu is collected and sorted).

subject-match-minimumcharacters(integer, default 4)

When set to a positive number, that many characters at the beginning
of the subject must match before the subject-match-parts option comes
into affect. This is important, because the part matching causes the
rest of the line to be ignored after the first digit pair is
discovered. This begins after any subject-match-offset has been
applied.

suggest-default-save(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will present the default-save-file when
prompting for a save file name in a group without a specific save
file, or folder-save-file when saving from a folder. When not
set, no file name is presented, and to use the default
save file, a single + must be specified.

tidy-newsrc(boolean, default false)

When set, nn will automatically remove lines from .newsrc which
represent groups not found in the active file or unsubscribed groups
if keep-unsubscribed is not set.

time(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will show the current time in the prompt line.
This is useful on systems without a
sysline (1)
utility.

trace-folder-packing(boolean, default true)

When set, a trace of the retained and deleted messages is printed when
a folder is rewritten.

trusted-escape-codescodes(string, default none)

When set to a list of one or more characters, nn will trust and
output escape characters in an article if it is followed by one
of the characters in the list. For example, to switch to or from
kanji mode, control codes like "esc $" and "esc ( J"
may be present in the text. To allow these codes, use the following
command:

set trusted-escape-codes ($

You can also set it to all to pass all espace codes through to
the screen. Notice that nn thinks all characters (including
esc) output to the screen as occupy one column.

unshar-commandshell-command(string, default "/bin/sh")

This is the command which is invoked by the unshar command.

unshar-header-filefile(string, default "Unshar.Headers")

The name of the file in which the header and initial text of articles
unpacked with the :unshar command is saved. Unless the file name
starts with a `/', the file will be created in the same directory as
the unpacked files. The information is not saved if this variable is
not set. Setting it to "Unshar.Result" will cause the headers and the
results from the unpacking process to be merged in a meaningful way
(unless mmdf-format is set).

unsubscribe-mark-read(boolean, default true)

When set, unsubscribing to a group will automatically mark all current
articles read; this is recommended to keep the size of .newsrc down.
Otherwise, unread articles in the unsubscribe groups are kept in
.newsrc. If keep-unsubscribed is false, this variable has no
effect.

update-frequency(integer, default 1)

Specifies how many changes need to be done to the .newsrc or select
files before they are written back to disk. The default setting
causes .newsrc to be updated every time a group has been read.

use-editor-line(boolean, default true)

Most editors accept arguments of the form:

editor [-arguments] +n filename

where editor is the name of the editor, and n is the line number to put the
cursor upon entering the file. If use-editor-line is false, it will not
add the "+n" to the arguments.

use-path-in-from(boolean, default false)

When mail-format is set, saved articles will be preceded by a
specially formatted "From " line:

From origin date

Normally, the origin will be the name of the news group where the
article appeared, but if use-path-in-from is set, the contents
of the "Path:" header will be used as the origin.

use-selections(boolean, default true)

When set, nn uses the selections and other article attributes
saved last time nn was used. If not set, nn ignores the
select file.

visible-bell(boolean, default true)

When set, nn will flash the screen instead of "ringing the
bell" if the visible bell (flash) capability is defined in the
termcap/terminfo database.

windowsize(integer, default not set)

When set, nn will reserve the last size lines of the menu
screen for a preview window. If not set, nn will clear the
screen to preview an article if there are less than min-window
lines at the
bottom of the screen. As a side effect, it can also be used to reduce
the size of the menus, which may be useful on slow terminals.

word-keykey(key, default ^W)

The key which erases the last input component or word
when nn is prompting for a string, e.g. the last name in a path
name.

wrap-header-marginsize(integer, default 6)

When set (non-negative), the customized header fields specified inheader-lines will be split across several lines if they don't
fit on one line. When size is greater than zero, lines will be
split at the first space occurring in the last size columns of
the line. If not set (or negative), long header lines will be
truncated if they don't fit on a single line.

CUSTOMIZED ARTICLE HEADER PRESENTATION

Normally, nn will just print a (high-lighted) single line header
containing the author, subject, and date (optional) of the article
when it is read.

By setting the
header-lines
variable as described below, it is possible to get a more informative
multi line header with optional high-lighting and underlining.

The
header-lines
variable is set to a list of header line identifiers, and the
customized headers will then contain exactly these header lines
in the specified order.

The same specifications are also used by the :print and
save-short commands via the print-header-lines and
save-header-lines variables.

The following header line identifiers are recognized in the
header-lines,
print-header-lines,
and save-header-lines variables:

AApproved:

aSpool-File:(path of spool file containing the article)

BDistribution:

CControl:

DDate:

dDate-Received:

FFrom:

fSender:

GNewsgroup:(current group)

gNewsgroup:(current group if cross-posted or merged)

IMessage-Id:

KKeywords:

LLines:

NNewsgroups:

nNewsgroups: (but only if cross posted)

OOrganization:

PPath:

RReply-To:

SSubject:

vSave-File:(the default save file for this article)

WFollowup-To:

XReferences:

xBack-References:

YSummary:

The 'G' and 'g' fields will include the local article number if it is
known, e.g.

Newsgroup: news.software.nn/754

The following special symbols are recognized in the header-lines
variable (and ignored otherwise):

Preceding the identifier with an equal sign "=" or an underscore "_"
will cause the header field contents to be high-lighted or underlined.

A plus sign "+" will use the shading attribute defined by
shading-on and shading-off to high-light the field
contents. If no shading attribute is defined it will underline the
field instead.

Including an asterisk "*" in the list will produce the standard one
line header at that point.

Example: The following setting of the
header-lines
variable will show the author (underlined), organization, posting
date, and subject (high-lighted) when articles are read:

set header-lines _FOD=S

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

Some of the command line options have already been described, but
below we provide a complete list of the effect of each option by
showing the equivalent
set,
unset,
or
toggle
command.

Besides the options described below, you can set any of
nn's variables directly on the command line via an argument of
the following format:

variable=value

To set or unset a boolean variable, the value can be specified as
on or off (t and f will also work).

Notice that the init files are read before the options are
parsed (unless you use the -I option). Therefore, the options
which are related to boolean variables set in the init file will
toggle the value set there, rather than the default value.
Consequently, the meaning of the options are also user-defined.

The explanations below describe the effect related to the default
setting of the variables, with the `reverse' effect in square
brackets.

-aN{set limitN}

Limit
the maximum number of articles presented in each group toN.
This is useful to get up-to-date quickly if you have not
read news for a longer period.

-a0

Mark
all
unread articles as read. See the full explanation at the beginning of
this manual.

-B{toggle backup}

Do not [do] backup the rc file.

-d{toggle split}

Do not [do] split digests into separate articles.

-f{toggle fsort}

Do not [do] sort folders according to the subject (present the
articles in a folder in the sequence in which they were saved).

-g

Prompt for the name of a news group or folder to be entered

-i{toggle case-fold-search}

Normally searches with -n and -s are case independent.
Using this option, the case becomes significant.

-I

Do not read the init file. This must be the first option!!
The global setup file is still read.

-Ifile-list

Specifies an alternate list of init files to be loaded instead of the
standard global and private init files. The list is a comma-separated
list of file names. Names which does not contain a `/' are looked for
in the ~/.nn directory. An empty element in the list is interpreted
as the global init file. The list of init files must
not be separated from the -I option by blanks, and it
must be the first option. Example: The default behaviour corresponds
to using -I,init (first the global file, then the file ~/.nn/init).
The global setup file is still read as the first init file
independently of the -I option used.

-k{toggle kill}

Do not [do] perform automatic kill and selection of articles.

-lN{set stopN}

Stop after printing the first N lines of each article.
This is useful on slow terminals.

Merge all articles into one `meta group' instead of showing
them one group at a time. When -m is used, no articles will be marked
as read.

-nWORD

Collect only articles which contain the string WORD in the
sender's name (case is ignored). If WORD
starts with a slash `/', the rest of the argument is used as a
regular expression instead of a fixed string.

-N{no corresponding variable}

Disable updating of the rc file. This includes not recording that
groups have been read or unsubscribed to (although nn will think
so until you quit).

-q{toggle sort}

Do not [do] sort the articles (q means quick, but it isn't
any quicker in practice!)

-Q{toggle silent}

Quiet mode - don't [do] print the logo or "No News" messages.

-r{toggle repeat-group-query}

Make -g repeat query for a group to enter.

-sWORD

Collect only articles which contain the string
WORD
in their subject (case is ignored). If
WORD
starts with a slash `/', the rest of the argument is used as a
regular expression instead of a fixed string.

-S{toggle repeat}

Do not [do] eliminate duplicated subject lines on menus.

-T{toggle time}

Do not [do] show the current time in the prompt line.

-w[N]{set windowN}

Reserve N lines of the menu screen for a preview window. IfN is omitted, the preview window is set to 5 lines.

-W{toggle confirm-messages}

[Don't] Wait for confirmation on all messages.

-x[N]{set old N}

Present (or scan) all (or the last N) unread as well as
read articles. This will
never
mark unread articles as read.

-X{no corresponding variable}

Read/scan unsubscribed groups also. Most useful when looking for
a specific subject in all groups, e.g.

nn -mxX -sSubject all

MACRO DEFINITIONS

Practically any combination of commands and key strokes can be defined
as a macro which can be bound to a single key in menu and/or reading mode.

The macro definition must specify a sequence of commands and key
strokes as if they were typed directly from the keyboard. For
example, a string specifying a file name must follow a save command.
This manual does not give a complete specification of all the input
required by the various commands; it is recommended to execute the
desired command sequence from the keyboard prior to defining the macro
to get the exact requirements of each command.

Although it is possible to define temporary macros interactively using the
:define
command, macro definitions are normally placed in the
init
file. Macros are numbered from 0 to 100, i.e. it is possible to define
a total of 101 different macros (implicit macros defined with the
map command uses internal numbers from 101 to 200).

To define macro number M, the following construction is used
(the line breaks are mandatory):

defineMbodyend

The body consists of a sequence of tokens separated by
white space (blanks or newlines). However, certain tokens
continue to the end of the current line.

The following tokens may occur in the macro body:

Comments

Empty lines and text following a # character (preceded by white space)
is ignored.

Command Names

Any command name listed in the key mapping section can be included in
a macro causing that command to be invoked when the macro is executed.

Extended Commands

All the extended commands which can be executed through the
command
command (normally bound to the : key) can also be executed in a macro.
An extended command starts with a colon (:) and continues to the
end of the current line. Example:

:show groups total

Key Strokes

A key stroke (which is normally mapped into a command depending on the
current mode) is specified as a key name enclosed in single quotes.
Examples (A-key, left arrow key, RETURN key):

'A' 'left' '^M'

Shell Commands

External commands can be invoked as part of a macro execution. There
are two forms of shell command invocations available depending on
whether a command may produce output or require user input, or
it is guaranteed to complete without input or output to the
terminal. The difference is that in the latter case, nn does
not prepare the terminal to be used by another program. When the
command completes, the screen is not redrawn
automatically; you should use the redraw command to do that.
The tho forms are:

:!echo this command uses the terminal
:!!echo this command does not > /tmp/file

Strings

Input to commands prompting for a string, e.g. a file name, can be
specified in a macro as a double quoted string. Example (save without
prompting for a file name):

save-short "+$G"

Conditionals

Conditionals may occur anywhere in a macro; a conditional is evaluated
when the macro is executed, and if the condition is false the rest
of the current line is ignored. The following conditionals are available:

?menu True in menu mode
?show True in reading mode
?folder True when looking at a folder
?group True when looking at a news group
?yes Query user, true if answer is yes
?no Query user, true if answer is no

Example (stop macro execution if user rejects to continue):

prompt "continue? " ?no break

In addition to these conditionals, it is possible to test the current
value of boolean and integer variables using the following form:

?variable=value

This conditional will be true (1) if the variable is an integer variable
whose current value is the one specified, or (2) if the variable is a
boolean variable which is either on or off. Examples:

?layout=3 :set layout 1
?monitor=on break
?sort=off :sort age

break

Terminate macro execution completely. This includes nested macros.
Example (stop if looking at a folder):

?folderbreak

return

Terminate execution of current macro. If the current macro is called
from another macro, execution of that macro continues immediately.

input

Query the user for a key stroke or a string, for example a file name.
Example (prompt the user for a file name in the usual way):

save-shortinput

yes

Confirm unconditionally if a command requires confirmation. It
is ignored if the command does not require confirmation. Example
(confirm creation of new files):

save-short "+$G" yes

no

Terminate execution of current macro if a command requires
confirmation; otherwise ignore it. If neither yes nor no
is specified when a command requires confirmation, the user must
answer the question as usual - if the user confirms the action
execution continues normally; otherwise the execution of the current
macro is terminated. Example (do not create new files):

save-short "+$L/misc" no

promptstring

Print the string in the prompt line (highlighted). The string
must be enclosed in double quotes. Example:

prompt "Enter recipient name"

When the macro terminates, the original prompt shown on entry to the
macro will automatically be redrawn. If this is not desirable (e.g.
if the macro goes from selection to reading mode), the redrawing of
the prompt can be disabled by using a prompt command with an
empty string (""). Example:

KEY MAPPINGS

The descriptions of the keys and commands provided in this manual
reflects the default key mappings in nn. However, you can
easily change these mappings to match your personal demands, and it is
also possible to remap keys depending on the terminal in use.
Permanent remapping of keys must be done through the
init
file, while temporary changes (for the duration of the current
invocation of nn) can be made with the
:map
command.

The binding and mapping of keys are controlled by four tables:

The multikey definition table

This table is used for mapping multicharacter key sequences into
single characters. By default the table contains the mappings for the
four cursor keys, and there is room for 10 user-defined multikeys.
The fourteen multikeys are named:
up,
down,
right,
left
(the four arrow keys), and
#0
through
#9
for the user-defined keys.

Multikey #i (where i is a digit or an arrow key name) is
defined using the following command:

map #ikey-sequence

where the
sequence
is a list of 7-bit character names (see below) separated by spaces.
For example, if the HOME key sends the sequence ESC [ H, you can
define multikey #0 to be the home key using the command:

map #0 ^[ [ H

The input key mapping table

All characters that are read from the keyboard will be mapped through
the input mapping table. Consequently, you can globally remap one key
to produce any other key value. By default all keys are mapped into
themselves.

An entry in the input key mapping table to map input-key into
new-key is made with the command

map keyinput-keynew-key

For example, to make your ESC key function as
interrupt
you can use the command

map key ^[ ^G

The selection mode key binding table

This table defines for each key which command should be invoked when
that key is pressed in selection mode, i.e. when the article menu is
shown. The command to bind a
key
to a
command
in selection mode is:

map menukey command

For example, to have the HOME key defined as multikey #0 above bound
to the
select
command, the following command is used:

map menu #0 select

To remap a key to select a specific article on the menu (which the `a'
through `z' keys do by default), the command must be specified
as `articleN' where N is the entry number on the
menu counted from zero (i.e. a=0, b=1, ..., z=25, 0=26, ..., 9=35).
For example, to map `J' to select article `j', the following
command is used:

map menu J article 9

The reading mode key binding table

This table defines for each key which command should be invoked when
that key is pressed in reading mode, i.e. when the article text is
shown. The command to bind a
key
to a
command
in reading mode is:

map showkey command

In addition to the direct mappings described above, the following
variations of the map command are available:

User defined keymaps

Additional keymaps can be defined using the command

make mapnewmap

This will create a new keymap which can initialized using normal
map commands, e.g.

mapnewmap key command

To activate a user-defined keymap, it must be bound to a prefix key:

mapbase-map prefix-keyprefixnewmap

When used, the prefix key itself does not activate a command, but
instead it require another key to be entered and then execute the
command bound to that key in the keymap which is bound to the prefix key.
For example, to let the key sequence "^X i" execute macro number 10 in
both modes, the following commands can be used:

make map ctl-x
map ctl-x i macro 10
map both ^X prefix ctl-x

Mapping keys in both modes

Using the pseudo-keymap `both', it is possible to map a key to a
command in both selection and reading mode at once. For example, to
map the home key to macro number 5 in both modes, the following
command can be used:

map both #0 macro 5

Aliasing

A key can also be mapped directly to the command currently bound to
another key. Later remapping of the other key will not change the
mapping of the `aliased' key. This is done using the following command:

map keymap new-keyasold-key

Binding macros to keys

A previously defined macro can be bound to a key using the command:

map keymap keymacromacro-number

Implicit macro definitions

An implicit macro can also be defined directly in connection with the
map command:

map keymap key(body...
)

Keys and character names are specified using the following notation:

C

A single printable character represents the key or character itself.

^C

This notation represents a control key or character.
DEL is written as ^?

125, 0175, 0x7D

Characters and keys can be specified by their ordinal value in
decimal, octal, and hexadecimal notation.

up, down, right, left

These names represent the cursor keys.

#0 through #9

These symbols represent the ten user-defined multikeys.

If the variable data-bits is 7, key maps can specify binding of
all keys in the range 0x00 to 0x7F, and the 8th bit will be stripped
in all keyboard input.
If the variable data-bits is 8, the 8th bit is not cleared, and
key maps are extended to allow binding of keys in the range 0xA0 to
0xFE (corresponding to the national characters defined by the ISO 8859
character sets).
Binding commands to these keys can be done either by using their
numeric value, or directly specifying the 8 bit character in the map
command, e.g.

map menu 0xC8 macro 72
map key %

To show the current contents of the four tables, the following
versions of the :map command are available:

:map

Show the current mode's key bindings.

:map menu

Show the selection mode key bindings.

:map show

Show the reading mode key bindings.

:map #

Show the multikey definition table.

:map key

Show the input key mapping table.

STANDARD KEY BINDINGS

Below is a list of all the commands that can be bound to keys, either
in selection mode, in reading mode, or both. For each command the
default command key bindings in both modes are shown.
If the key is not bound in one of the modes, but it can be bound, the
corresponding part will just be empty. If the command cannot be bound
in one of the modes, that mode will contain the word nix.

FunctionSelection modeReading mode

advance-articlenixa

advance-groupA A

articleNa-z0-9 nix

back-articlenixb

back-groupB B

cancelC C

command: :

compressnixc

continuespacespace

continue-no-markreturnnix

decodefind= /

find-nextnix.

followF fF

full-digestnixH

goto-groupG G

goto-menunix= Z

help? ?

junk-articlesJ nix

kill-selectK K

layout" nix

leave-articlenixl

leave-nextL L

line+1, downreturn

line-1/ nix

line=@nixg

macroMmailM m M

message^P ^P

next-articlenixn

next-groupN N

next-subjectnixk

niloverviewY Y

page+1> nix

page+1/2nixd

page-1< delete backspace

page-1/2nixu

page=0nixh

page=1^ ^

page=$$ $

patchpostpreview% %

previousP p

printP

quitQ Q

read-returnZ nix

read-skipX X

redraw^L ^R ^L ^R

replyR r R

rot13nixD

save-fullS s S

save-shortO o O

save-headerE e E

save-bodyW w W

select. nix

select-auto+ nix

select-invert@ nix

select-range- nix

select-subject* *

shell! !

skip-linesnixtab

unselect-all~ nix

unsharunsubU U

versionV V

See the descriptions of the default bindings for a description of the
commands. The pseudo command
nil
is used to
unbind
a key.

THE INIT FILES

The
init
files are used to customize nn's behaviour to local conventions
and restrictions and to satisfy each user's personal taste.
Normally, nn reads upto three init files on start-up if they
exist (all init files are optional):

$LIB/setup

A system-wide file located in the library directory. This file is
always loaded before any other init file (even when the
-I option is specified). It cannot contain a group
presentation sequence.

$LIB/init

Another system-wide (global) init file located in the library
directory. This file may be ignored via the -I option.

~/.nn/init

The private init file located in the user's .nn directory.
It is read after the global init file to allow the user to change the
default setup.

The init file is parsed one line at a time. If a line ends with a
backslash `\', the backslash is ignored, and the following line is
appended to the current line.

The init file may contain the following types of commands (and data):

Comments

Empty lines and lines with a # character as the first non-blank
character are ignored. Except where # has another meaning defined by
the command syntax (e.g. multi-keys are named #n), trailing
comments on input lines are ignored.

Variable settings

You can
set
(or
unset)
all the variables described earlier to change
nn's behaviour permanently. The
set
and
unset
commands you can use in the init file have exactly the same format as
the
:set
and
:unset
commands described earlier (except that the : prefix is omitted.)

Variables can also be locked via the lock command; this is
typically done in the setup file to enforce local policies.

Key mappings

You can use all the versions of the
map
command in the init file.

Macro Definitions

You can define sequences of commands and key strokes using the
define...end construction,
which can then be
bound to single keys with the
map
command.

Load terminal specific files

You can load a terminal specific file using the

loadfile

The character
@
in the
file
will be replaced by the terminal type defined in the TERM environment
variable. nn silently ignores the
load
command if the file does not exist (so you don't have to have a
specific init file for terminals which does not require remapping).
If the file is not specified by an absolute pathname, it must reside
in your ~/.nn directory. Examples:

You can skip the rest of the current init file and start loading a
different init file with the following command:

chainfile

If this occur in the private or global init file, the chained init
file may contain a sequence part which will replace the private or
global presentation sequence respectively.

Stop loading current init file

You can skip the rest of the current init file with the following
command:

stop

Give error messages and/or terminate

If an error is detected in the init file, the following commands can be
used to print an error message and/or terminate execution:

errorfatal error message...

Print the message and terminate execution.

echowarning message...

Print the message and continue.

exit [ status ]

Terminate nn with the specified exit status or 0 if omitted.

Change working directory of nn

You can use the
cd
command to change the working directory whenever you enter nn.
Example:

# Use folder directory as working directory inside nn
cd ~/News

Command groups

The init file can contain groups of commands which are executed under
special conditions. The command groups are described in the section
on command groups below.

One or more save-files sections

A save-files section is used to assign default save files to
specific groups:

save-filesgroup-name (pattern)file-name
...
end

The group name (patterns) and save file names are specified in the
same way as in the presentation sequence (see below). Example:

save-files
news* +news/$L
comp.sources* /u/src/$L/
end

The news group presentation sequence

The
last
part of the init file may specify the sequence in which you want the
news groups to be presented. This part starts with the command
sequence
and continues to the end of the init file.

Both init files may contain a presentation sequence. In this case,
the global sequence is appended to the private sequence.

COMMAND GROUPS

Command groups may only occur in the init file, and they provide a way
to have series of commands executed at certain points during news reading.

In release 6.4 onwards, these possibilities are still rather
rudimentary, and a mixture of normal init file syntax and macro syntax
is used depending on whether the command group is only executed on
start-up or several times during the nn session.

A command group begins with the word on and
ends with the word end. The following command groups are
conditionally executed during the parsing of the init file if the
specified condition is true. They may also have an optional
else part which is executed if the condition is false:

oncondition
commands
[ else
commands ]
end

The following conditional command groups may be used in the init file
to be executed at start-up:

on [test]

The commands (init file syntax) in the group are executed only if the
specified test is true.
A shell is spawned to execute the command "[ test ]", so all the
options of the test(1) command is available. For example, to
unset the flow-control variable if the tty is a pseudo-tty, the
following conditional can be used:

on [ -n "`tty | grep ttyp`" ]
unset flow-control
end

on !shell command

The command group is executed if the given shell command exits
with 0 status (success).
Care should be taken that the command does not produce any
output, e.g. by redirecting its output to /dev/null. For example, to
prevent people from reading news if load is above a specific level,
the following conditional might be placed in the global setup file.

on !load-above 5
error load is too high, try again later.
end

on `shell command`string...

The command group is executed if the first output line from
executing the specified shell command is listed among the
specified string values. The shell command can be omitted
on subsequent occurrences of this conditional, in which case
the output from the last shell command is used.
For example, the following conditional
can be used to switch to an init file which has a limited sequence for
news reading during working hours, evenings, and nights:

This is equivalent to the previous form except that instead of
executing a shell command, the output from the previous

on $variable [ value ]

If no value strings are specified, the command group is executed
if the given variable is defined in the environment. Otherwise,
the command group is executed only if the value of the variable
occur in the value list. For example, if you want nn to
look for mail in whatever $MAIL is set to - if it is set - you can use
the following code:

on $MAIL
set mail $(MAIL)
end

on slow

The commands (init file syntax) in the group are executed only if the
current terminal output speed is less than or equal to the baud rate
set in the slow-speed variable. This can be used to optimize
the user-interface for slow terminals by setting suitable variables:

on slow
set confirm-entry
set slow-mode
set delay-redraw
unset visible-bell
set compress
unset header-lines
set stop 5
set window 10
end

on fast

Same as on slow except that the commands are only executed when
the terminal is running at a speed above the slow-speed value.

on termterm-type...

The commands are executed if one of the term-type names is
identical to value of the TERM environment variable.

on hosthost-name...

The commands are executed if the local host's name occur in the
host-name list.

on programprogram-name...

The commands are executed if the current program (nn,
nncheck, etc) in the program-name list.

The following on command groups are really macros which may be
executed during nn's normal processing, and as such they cannot
have an else part.

on entry [ group list ]

These commands (macro format!) are executed every time nn enters a
news group. If a group list is not specified, the commands are
associated with all groups which don't have its own entry macro
specified in the group sequence. Otherwise, the entry macro will be
associated with the groups in the list. The group list is specified
using the meta-notations described in the presentation sequence section.

All `:' commands at the beginning of the
command group are executed beforenn collects the articles
in the group, so it is possible to set or unset variables like
cross-post and auto-read-mode-limit before any articles are
collected and the menu is (not) shown.
The non-`:' commands, and `:' commands that follows a command of
another type will be executed immediately after the first menu
page is presented. The execution of a `:' command can be postponed by
using a double `::' as the command prefix.

on entry comp.sources* alt.sources
:set cross-post on # set before collection
:local auto-read-mode-limit -1 # set before showing menu
::unset cross-post # set after collection
end

on start-up

These `:' commands (macro format!) are executed on start-up just
before nn enters the first news group. However, postponed
commands (i.e. non-`:' commands) will not be executed until the first
group is shown (it works like an entry macro).

GROUP PRESENTATION SEQUENCE

News groups are normally presented in the sequence defined in the
system-wide
init
file in nn's library directory.

You can personalize the presentation sequence
by specifying an alternative sequence in the private
init
file.
The sequence in the private init file is used
before
the global presentation sequence, and need only
describe the deviations from the default presentation sequence.

The presentation sequence must start with the word

sequence

followed by a list of the news group names in the order you want them
to be presented.
The group names must be separated by white space.
The sequence list must be the last part of the
init file (the parsing of commands from the init file stops when the
word sequence is encountered).

You may use a full group name like "comp.unix.questions", or just the
name of a main group or subgroup, e.g. "comp" or "comp.unix".
However, if "comp" precedes "comp.unix.questions" in the list, this
subgroup will be placed in the normal alphabetic sequence during the
collection of all the "comp" groups.

Groups which are not explicitly mentioned in any of the sequence files
will be placed after the mentioned groups, unless `!!' is used and it
has not been disabled (as described below).

Each group name may be followed by a file or folder name (must start
with either of `/' `~' or `+') which will specify the default save file
for that group (and its subgroups). A single `+' following the group
name is an abbreviation for the last save file name used.
For example, the following two sequences are equivalent:

group1 +file group2 +file group3 +file
group1 +file group2 + group3 +

When an article is saved, the default save name will be used as the
initial contents of the file name prompt for further editing. It
therefore does not need to be be a complete file name (unless you use
the quick save mode).

Each group name may also be associated
with a so-called entry action. This is basically an (unnamed)
macro which is invoked on entry to the group (following the same rules
as the `on entry' command group related to :set and :unset commands).

The entry action begins with a left parenthesis `(' and ends
with a right parenthesis `)' on an otherwise empty line:

comp.sources. +src/$L/ (
:set cross-post
)

The last entry action can be repeated by specifying an empty set of
parenthesis, e.g.

comp.unix. +unix ()

The entry action of a preceding group in the sequence can be
associated with the current group(s) by specifying the name of the
group in the parentheses instead of the commands, e.g.

comp.unix. +unix (comp.sources.unix)

A macro can also be associated with the entry action by specifying its
number in the same way as the group name above, e.g.

rec.music. +music (30)

Notice that it is the
current definition of the macro which is associated with the
group, so if the macro is later redefined with the `:define' command,
it will not have any effect on the entry action.

Group names can be specified using the following notations:

group.name

Append the group (if it exists) to the presentation sequence list. If
also-subgroups is set (default), all subscribed subgroups of the
group will be included as well (if there are any). Examples: "comp",
"comp.unix", "comp.unix.questions". If the group does not exits (e.g.
"comp"), the subgroups will be included even when also-subgroups
is not set, i.e. "comp" is equivalent to "comp.".

group.name.

Append the subgroups of the specified group to the presentation
sequence. The group itself (if it exists) is not included.
Examples: "comp.", "comp.unix.".

Append the groups whose name ends with the specified name to the
sequence. Example: ".test".

group.name*

Append the group and its subgroups to the presentation sequence list
(even when also-subgroups is not set). Example: "comp.unix*".

The following meta notation can be used in a sequence file. The
group.name can be specified using any of the forms described above:

! groups

Completely ignore the group or groups specified
unless they are already in the presentation sequence (i.e. has been
explicitly mentioned earlier in the sequence).

!:code groups

Ignore a selection of groups based on the given code letter (see
below), unless they are already included in the sequence. Notice that
these forms only excludes groups from the
presentation sequence, i.e. they do not include the remaining
groups at this point; that must be done explicitly elsewhere.

!:U groups

Ignore unsubscribed groups, i.e. if they are neither new, nor present
and subscribed in .newsrc.
This is useful to ignore a whole hierarchy except for a
few groups which are explicitly mentioned in .newsrc and still see
new groups as they are created.

!:X groups

Ignore unsubscribed and new groups, i.e. if they are not
currently present and subscribed in .newsrc.
This is useful to ignore a whole hierarchy except for a
few groups which are explicitly mentioned in .newsrc. New groups in
the hierarchy are ignored unless `NEW' occurs earlier in the sequence.

!:O groups

Ignore old groups, i.e. unless they are new. This is useful to
ignore a whole hierarchy but still see new groups which are created in
the hierarchy (it might become interesting some day). Individual
groups can still be included in the sequence if they are specified
before the `!:O' entry.

!:N groups

Ignore new groups in the hierarchy.

!!

Stop building the presentation sequence. This eliminates all groups
that are not already in the presentation sequence.

NEW

This is a pseudo group name which matches all new groups; you
could place this symbol early in your presentation sequence to see new
groups `out of sequence' (to attract your attention to them).

RC

This is a pseudo group name which matches all groups occurring in the
.newsrc file. It will cause the groups in .newsrc to be appended to
the presentation sequence in the sequence in which they are listed in
.newsrc.

RC:number

Similar to the RC entry, but limited to the first number
lines of the .newsrc file. Example: RC:10 (use 10 lines of .newsrc).

RC:string

Similar to the RC entry, but limited to the lines up to (and
including) the first line (i.e. group) starting with the given
string. For example: RC:alt.sources

< group.name

Place the group (and its subgroups) at the beginning of the
presentation sequence. Notice that each `<' entry will place the
group(s) at the beginning of the current sequence, i.e. < A < B < C
will generate the sequence C B A.

> group.name

Place the group (and its subgroups) after all other groups that are
and will be entered into the presentation sequence.

@

Disable the `!!' command. This can be included in the personal
presentation sequence if the global
sequence
file contains a !! entry (see example 1 below).

% .... %

Starts and ends a region of the sequence where it is possible to
include groups which has been eliminated earlier. This may be useful
to alter the sequence of some groups, e.g. to place comp.sources.bugs
after all other source groups, the following sequence can be used:

! comp.sources.bugs comp.sources* % comp.sources.bugs %

Example 1:
In a company where ordinary users only should read the local
news groups, and ignore the rest (including new news groups which are
otherwise always subscribed to initially), can use the following
global presentation sequence:

general
follow
! local.test
local
!!

The "expert" users in the company must put the
@
command somewhere
in their private sequence to avoid losing news groups which they have
not explicitly mentioned in their init file.

Example 2:
This is the global sequence for systems with
heavy news addicts who setup their own sequences anyway.

# all must read the general news first
< general
# test is test, and junk is junk,
# so it is placed at the very end
> test
> .test
> junk
# this is the standard sequence which everybody may
# change to their own liking
local # our local groups
dk # the Danish groups
eunet.general # to present it before eunet.followup
eunet # the other European groups
comp # the serious groups
news # news on news
sci # other serious groups
rec # not really that important (don't quote me)
misc # well, it must be somewhere
# the groups that are not listed above goes here

Notice the use of comments in the sequence where they are allowed at
the end of non-empty lines as well.

The presentation sequence is not used when nn is called with one or
more news group names on the command line; it is thus possible to read
ignored groups (on explicit request) wihtout changing the init file.
(Of course, you can also use the
G
command to read ignored groups).

MERGING NEWS GROUPS

The third example above contains the following line:

comp.emacs*,gnu.emacs +emacs/misc

This is the syntax used to merge groups. When two or more
groups are merged, all new articles in these groups are presented
together as if they were one group. To merge groups, their names must
be listed together in the sequence, and only separated by a single
comma. To merge the groups resulting from a single group pattern
(e.g. comp.emacs*), the group pattern must be followed by a comma and
a blank (e.g. comp.emacs*, ...).

Merged groups are presented as the first group in the "list", and the
word "MERGED" will be shown after the group name. The Y
{overview} command will still show merged groups as individual
groups, but they will be annotated with the symbol `&' on the first of
the groups, and a `+' on the rest of the groups.

In the current version, the concept of the current group in
connection with merged groups is a bit fuzzy. This should only be
noticeable with the G command, which will take the most recently
used group among the merged groups as the current group. So things
like G = ... may not always work as expected.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables are used by nn:

EDITOR.
The editor invoked when editing replies, follow-ups, and composing
mail. nn knows about the following editors:
vi, ded, GNU emacs, and micro-emacs,
and will try to position the cursor on the first line following the
header, i.e. after the blank line which must not be deleted! If an
article has been included, the cursor is placed on the first line of
the included text (to allow you to delete sections easily).

LOGNAME.
This is taken as the login name of the current user. It is used by
nn to return failed mail. If it is not defined, nn will
use the value of USER, or if that is not defined either, nn will
use the call `who am i' to get this information. If all attempts
fail, the failed mail is dropped in the bit bucket.

PAGER.
This is used as the initial value of the pager variable.

SHELL.
This is the shell which is spawned if the system cannot suspend
nn, and it will be used to execute the shell escapes.

TERM.
The terminal type.

NOTES

When NNTP is being used over a slow link (as with the
ppp protocol and a modem), it may be desirable to
suppress the retrieval of the information about new newsgroups,
and their purpose, since they can be hundreds of KBytes in size.
To do this, the new-group-action and show-purpose-mode variables
should be set to 0 in your init file. See the descriptions of those
variables for more info.

Unfortunately, the list of active newsgroups is still fetched, since nn uses
it to determine which groups to check for new articles. Even this could
be avoided, but the cost would be checking for new articles in every
group, which might well be slower overall, although startup would
be faster.

FILES

~/.newsrcThe record of read articles.

~/.nn/selectThe record of selected and seen articles.

~/.nn/initPersonal configuration and presentation sequence.

~/.nn/killThe automatic kills and selections.

~/.nn/KILL.COMPThe compiled kill file.

~/.nn/LASTThe time stamp of the last new news group we have seen.

~/.nn/NEXTGActive group last time nn was quit.

~/.nn/.paramParameter file for the aux script

$lib/setupSystem-wide setup - always read first.

$lib/initSystem-wide setup and presentation sequence.

$lib/auxThe response edit and send script.

$lib/routesMapping rules for mail addresses (on non-domain systems).

$db/*The news data base.

/etc/termcapTerminal data base [BSD].

/usr/lib/terminfo/*Terminal data base [SysV].

/usr/local/lib/nntp_serverName of remote nntp server, if not changed
by setting the environment variable NNTPSERVER or the nntp-server
variable on the command line.

The name $lib and $db are the directories used for the auxiliary files
and the news data base respectively. Their name and location is
defined at compile time. Common choices are /usr/local/lib/nn or
/usr/lib/news/nn for $lib and /usr/spool/nn or /usr/spool/news/.nn for
$db.

ORIGINAL AUTHOR

CURRENT MAINTAINER

The NNTP support was designed and implemented by Ren Seindal,
Institute of Datalogy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The news.software.nn group is used for discussion on all subjects
related to the nn news reader. This includes, but is not limited to,
questions, answers, ideas, hints, information from the development
group, patches, etc.